Progress on the Materials Test Station

There is general consensus that closing the nuclear fuel cycle requires the use of fast spectrum reactors using fuels containing plutonium, neptunium, americium, and possibly curium. Through the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the United States Department of Energy seeks to fabricate appropriate actinide-bearing fuels and demonstrate their performance under prototypic irradiation conditions. One significant impediment in this fuels development program is ready access to a fast spectrum irradiation facility for fuels testing. The proposed Materials Test Station (MTS) will provide this capability. As a fuels irradiation facility, the MTS is unique in that the primary source of neutrons is spallation, rather than fission. A powerful 1-MW proton beam drives the spallation reactions, generating ∼1017 n/s. The neutron spectrum in the fuel irradiation region is similar to that in a fast reactor, with a peak fast flux exceeding 1015 n.cm-2.s-1. Upgrade options exist to bring the peak fast flux to a level equal to that of the BOR-60 research fast reactor. (authors)