Research Project on Accelerator-driven Subcritical System Using FFAG Accelerator and Kyoto University Critical Assembly

The Research Reactor Institute of Kyoto University started the KART (Kumatori Accelerator-driven Reactor Test facility) project in fiscal year 2002 under the Contract with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The purpose of this research project is to demonstrate the basic feasibility of accelerator-driven system (ADS), studying the effect of incident neutron energy on the effective multiplication factor in a subcritical nuclear fuel system. For this purpose, a variable-energy FFAG (Fixed Field Alternating Gradient) accelerator complex is constructed and coupled with the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA). This paper presents the present status of the project and some of the results from the task performed up to Fiscal Year 2005.