Comparative analysis of proton and light ion beams for energy amplification in subcritical systems

The efficiency of 0.5-4 GeV proton and 0.25-1 AGeV light ion (7Li, 9Be, 11B, and 12C) beams for energy production in a large subcritical enriched U target is analyzed using Geant4. The possibility of increasing the energy deposited in the target irradiated by ion beams with an energy below 0.5 AGeV by using a window from low Z materials is analyzed. It is shown that 0.3-0.4 AGeV light ion beams are advantageous for ADS from the point of view of energy gain and accelerator size.