Pulsed Booster Kinetics with Proton Injection

The kinetics of a pulsed booster controlled by a high-energy proton beam is examined as a promising source of powerful neutron pulses. A subcritical multiplying assembly based on plutonium dioxide with a reactivity modulator is considered as the pulsed booster. The pulsed booster intensifies neutron pulses generated in a non-multiplying target by the accelerator protons. The parameters of the neutron pulses of a booster with different lifetime of prompt neutrons and different booster multiplication (20 and 50), i.e., with multiplication coefficients 0.95 and 0.98, are calculated. The presented calculations make it possible to pick an optimal variant of the parameters of the reactivity modulator, base level of subcriticality, lifetime of prompt neutrons, and others.