Utilisation and reliability of high power proton accelerators

R and D activities and construction plans related to high power proton accelerators are being considered in various countries to promote basic and applied sciences. This includes plans for accelerator-driven nuclear energy systems (ADS) for the transmutation of nuclear waste. The performance of such hybrid nuclear systems depends to a large extent on the specification and reliability of high power accelerators, as well as the integration of the accelerator with spallation targets and subcritical systems. Both accelerator scientists and reactor physicists gathered together at an NEA workshop to discuss, inter alia, the reliability of the accelerator and the impact of beam interruptions on the design and performance of the ADS; spallation target design characteristics and their impact on the subcritical system design; safety and operational characteristics of a subcritical system driven by a spallation source; and test facilities. These proceedings contain all the technical papers presented at the workshop as well as summaries of the discussions held during each technical session. (author)