Neutronics performance and decay heat calculation of a solid target for a spallation neutron source

A solid target is expected to give higher neutron intensity than a liquid target of mercury at a spallation neutron source with a power of around 1 MW. We have studied the neutronic performance of a target-moderator-reflector assembly with a tungsten solid target. It is found that the neutron intensities from moderators were higher in the solid target system than in the mercury liquid target. However, the tungsten target required cladding to prevent tungsten from the corrosion of cooling water. A tungsten target with tantalum cladding has been already developed although tantalum has high decay heat. Therefore, we estimated the decay heat of the target and found that the decay heat of 0.5 mm thick tantalum was still high. We need a thinner tantalum or new cladding materials. It was revealed that adoption of a thinner tantalum or new cladding material such as chrome nitride reduced the decay heat effectively.