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HISTORY


The concept is credited to Carlo Rubbia , a nuclear Physicist and former director of Europe's CERN international Nuclear Physics lab. He published a proposal for a power reactor based on a proton Cyclotron accelerator with a beam energy of 800 MeV to 1 GeV , and a target with Thorium as fuel and Lead as a coolant.


ADVANTAGES


The concept has several potential advantages over conventional nuclear Fission Reactor s:

  • Subcritical design means that the reaction could not run away — if anything went wrong, the reaction would stop and the reactor would cool down. A Meltdown could however occur if the refrigeration of the core were lost.


  • Thorium is an abundant element — much more so than Uranium — reducing strategic and political supply issues and eliminating costly and energy intensive Isotope separation. There is enough thorium to generate energy for at least several thousand years at current consumption rates.


  • The energy amplifier would produce very little Plutonium , so the design is believed to be more proliferation-resistant than conventional nuclear power (although the question of Uranium -233 as Nuclear Weapon material must be assessed carefully).


  • The possibility exists of using the reactor to consume plutonium, reducing the dangerously large world stockpile of the very long lived element.


  • Less long-lived Radioactive Waste is produced — the waste material would decay after 500 years to the radioactive level of Coal ash.


  • No new science is required; the technologies to build the energy amplifier have all been demonstrated in the laboratory. Building an energy amplifier requires only some Engineering effort, not fundamental research (unlike nuclear fusion proposals).


  • Power generation might be economical compared to current nuclear reactor designs if the total fuel cycle and decommissioning costs are considered.


  • The design could work on a relatively small scale, making it more suitable for countries without a well developed power grid system


  • Inherent safety and safe fuel transport could make the technology more suitable for developing countries as well as in densely populated areas.



PRINCIPLE AND FEASIBILITY


The energy amplifier uses a , an isotope of uranium which is not found in nature. Moderated neutrons produce U-233 fission, releasing energy.

This design is entirely plausible with currently available technology but requires more study before it can be declared both practical and economical.


REFERENCES


{Link without Title} An in-depth review of the Energy Amplifier co-authored by Rubbia (pdf download available from the CERN document server)

{Link without Title} Christoph Pistner, "Emerging Nuclear Technologies: The Example of Carlo Rubbia's Energy Amplifier", International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation