Safety considerations in the design of a facility for accelerator-based production of tritium

Facilities that use large neutron fluxes generated by spallation sources have been doing important jobs for many years now. A spallation source [accelerator production of tritium (APT)] is being considered for use as a tritium production facility. In making a decision about what kind of facility to build for this application, many factors must be considered, including safety. This paper is concerned with developing an integrated framework for considering safety in allocating resources to major design elements. Two concepts are being developed by the APT team. Both make use of a Linac producing a 200-mA beam at 1 GeV. This beam is spread out over the area of a spallation target. Spallation neutrons are effectively multiplied by interactions with target or [open quotes]multiplier[close quotes] material, moderated by water, and captured by suitable target nuclides whose subsequent decay produces tritium. In one concept, the spallation target is tungsten, and the absorbing target material is [sup 3]He. In the other concept [spallation-induced lithium conversion (SILC)], the spallation target is lead, and the absorbing target material is [sup 6]Li.