Problems of the ACT Reactor (the P11B Reaction)

Abstract

Publications considered a project of aneutronic reactor (the P11B reaction) based on the asymmetric centrifugal trap (ACT), the energy of protons and alpha particles leaving the reactor subjected to direct transformation to electrical energy.

These works considered a project of such a reactor under some simplifying assumptions. The most significant of them is that of the scheme of the intermediate Be nucleus decay into 2 alpha particles through the ground state, which determined the energy spectrum of these particles. However, there are two channels of decay of this nucleus in this reaction, i.e., through the ground state of Be and through its excited state, see Fig. 1. It can be seen from calculation in that the probability that the reaction goes through the excited state is two orders higher than the ground state variant.

It significantly changes the shape of the energy spectrum of alpha particles and makes it necessary to somehow change the scheme of their energy recovery in this project, the scheme of realization of the main process (the P11B reaction) remaining unchanged.