The current status and possible future of the Los Alamos spallation radiation effects facility

The Los Alamos Spallation Radiation Effects Facility (LASREF) has been configured for both proton and spallation neutron irradiations since 1985. The facility makes use of the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility 1 mA 800 MeV proton beam. Environment controlled proton and neutron irradiations have been demonstrated over the past nine years. The current copper beam stop configuration produces a maximum measured neutron flux of 4.6 x 10{sup 17} m{sup {minus}2}s{sup {minus}1} for energies greater than 1 KeV. The maximum proton flux at the center of Gaussian shaped beam is 1.2 x 10{sup 14} protons cm{sup {minus}2}s{sup {minus}1} with beam spot diameter of 3.5 cm at 2{sigma}. Previously published work has shown that the neutron flux can be increased by a factor of ten by changing the beam stop to tungsten and decreasing the diameter. Expertise exists at Los Alamos to further optimize this design to tailor neutron production and spectrum. Consideration and preliminary planning has also been done for increasing the LAMPF proton current from 1 mA to a few mA with a possible maximum of 10 mA. An upgrade of this type would produce current densities comparable to those proposed for the Accelerator-Driven Transmutation Technologies (ADTT) programs.