Abstract

The problem of utilization of nuclear fuel cycle waste is one of the main problems of modern nuclear energetics. In the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in cooperation with the Nuclear Safety Institute of the RAS, a model of a subcritical hybrid system with a plasma neutron driver based on an open gas-dynamic trap is being developed to solve this problem. Modeling of the plasma behavior in the source was carried out using the zero-dimensional GENESYS code, which takes into account the processes of capturing of injected atoms by ions and the processes of Coulombic interactions with warm plasma. This code also contains a module for calculating the linear power of neutron emission along the axis of the trap using the Monte Carlo method. As a template for the fuel blanket, a homogenized blanket of the EFIT system was used. The calculation of neutron-physical characteristics was carried out using a static NMC code which uses a method of direct modeling of neutron trajectories. The article presents the results of optimization of parameters of this system. In particular, the optimal length of the source emission zone was determined and the dependence of the multiplication factor on the thickness of the buffer zone of the subcritical blanket was determined.