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

PRODUCTION PLANT EXAMPLE - POWER INTERNALLY GENERATED

One scheme for self powering involves running an appropriatelyselected proton stream emerging from the antiproton production targetinto an electronuclear assembly of the kind previously consideredextensively by the Brookhaven National Laboratory. This scheme usesevaporation/spallation reactions to produce neutrons in assembliescontaining depleted, natural, or enriched uranium to produce heat andfissile material (production of both increase rapidly as the enrichmentof the assembly increases). The heat is used to run a conventionalelectricity producing plant (enriched fuel beyond a certain fractionenrichment might also be sold).

Some forms of antimatter might be stored as antihydrogen atoms ormolecules, requiring provision of positrons, facilities for enhancedrecombination of positrons and antiprotons, etc. Provision of positronscan be done in several ways and is not as constraining as antiprotonproduction.

This chart then shows a conceptual scheme for how a self-poweredantimatter factory might be arranged. This possibility is probably mostattractive when very large power investments are implied, as thesubsequent chart illustrates. Such a self-powered factory poses manychallenging problems of material balances, energy balances, process"self-consistency," and the like, which would be intriguing to evaluate.

It is tempting to characterize antimatter product!on as a "by-product" of an electronuclear plant producing electricity and fissilefuel; however, the needed proton energies are much lower for suchpurposes than the ~100 GeV protons attractive for antimatterproduction. The combined plant as described is in any case aninteresting self-standing symbiotic plant concept, whose design issusceptible to a number of variations.