High power proton drivers - ESS
The European Spallation Source, ESS, is currently under construction in Lund, Sweden. ESS will study the molecular building blocks of matter using neutron beams, generated by a high power proton driver hitting a rotating tungsten target. The driver will be very high power 2 GeV proton beam.
The role of the machine protection system for the proton-driver at the European Spallation Source.
About the project
One of the ESS' key tasks is to deliver neutron beams with a 95% overall reliability and to be operational at full power (average beam power of 5MW) for ~5000 h per year. In order to achieve these goals it is vital and highly important to perform a reliability, availability, maintainability as well as a risk analysis throughout the whole lifecycle of ESS.
The University of Oslo contributes, to the ESS accelerator R&D in the fields of beam physics and machine protection an in the future possibly also beam instrumentation. The ESS R&D will give Oslo significant competence in the design and operation of high-intensity proton drivers. This competence may be very valuable also for the study of accelerator driven systems (ADS), including Thorium driven nuclear reactors.
Financing
This project is co-financed by ESS and the Research Council of Norway under the SYNKNOYT program.