Concepts, Problems, & Opportunities

Concepts, Problems, & Opportunities for use of Annihilation Energy:

An Annotated Briefing on Near-Term RDT&E to Assess Feasibility

RAND Note N-2302-AF/RC

B. W. Augenstein

BASIC POWER NEEDS FOR

PRODUCTION

Power needs critically dependent on l value achieved
Basic power consumption: P beam power major driver
Set nominal production level: 10 milligrams per year (~2x10¹⁴ /sec.)

For a range of l values:	l=10^-4	10^-3	10^-2
Proton beam flux (P/sec)	~2x10¹⁸	~2x10¹⁷	~2x10¹⁶
Proton beam current, milliamps:	~320	32	3.2
Proton beam power, gigawatts: (select P energy ~65 GeV)	20	2	0.2
Required input power (eff. ~½), gigawatts:	40	4	0.4

Powering options:
- External (note-gasious diffusion plants used ~6 gw external power)
- Recover some energy by decelerating exiting P beam
- Self power (use BNL electronuclear technology concepts)

In this chart we take the l values just suggested and compute thebasic power amounts invested to achieve a given amount of antinucleonproduction (in the example we use a production level of 10milligrams/year). We assume a dedicated facility, continuouslyproducing.

Some ways of recovering/savng the power needs shown, possibly upto the case where complete self-powering is achievable, can besuggested. These ways involve the energy production possible inmultiplying materials such as uranium (see slide 10). However, it isalso pointed out that there are precedents for large facilities relyingon large amounts of external power.

Power savings will generally require somehow using the proton beamwhich exits from the antiproton production target. That target willgenerally operate as a transmission target, so that the exiting protonbeam is a sizeable fraction of the incoming proton beam. Seriousattention to recovery/self-powering options requires more quantitativeinformation on the spectral properties of the exiting proton beam toobtain adequate details on the problems of utilizing this exitingparticle stream.