We summarize here the results of the TARC experiment whose main purpose is to demonstrate the possibility of using Adiabatic Resonance Crossing (ARC) to destroy efficiently Long-Lived Fission Fragments (LLFFs) in accelerator-driven systems and to validate a new simulation developed in the framework of the Energy Amplifier programme. An experimental set-up was installed in a CERN PS proton beam line to study how neutrons produced by spallation at relatively high energy (En⩾1MeV) slow down quasi-adiabatically with almost flat isolethargic energy distribution and reach the capture resonance energy of an element to be transmuted where they will have a high probability of being captured. Precision measurements of energy and space distributions of spallation neutrons (using 2.5 and 3.5 GeV/c protons) slowing down in a 3.3 m×3.3 m×3 m lead volume and of neutron capture rates on LLFFs 99Tc, 129I, and several other elements were performed. An appropriate formalism and appropriate computational tools necessary for the analysis and understanding of the data were developed and validated in detail. Our direct experimental observation of ARC demonstrates the possibility to destroy, in a parasitic mode, outside the Energy Amplifier core, large amounts of 99Tc or 129I at a rate exceeding the production rate, thereby making it practical to reduce correspondingly the existing stockpile of LLFFs. In addition, TARC opens up new possibilities for radioactive isotope production as an alternative to nuclear reactors, in particular for medical applications, as well as new possibilities for neutron research and industrial applications.

Energy and space distributions of spallation neutrons (from 2.5 and 3.57 GeV/c CERN proton beams) slowing down in a 3.3 × 3.3 × 3 m3 lead volume and neutron capture rates on long-lived fission fragments 99Tc and 129I demonstrate that Adiabatic Resonance Crossing (ARC) can be used to eliminate efficiently such nuclear waste and validate innovative simulation.

The use of accelerator driven system (ADS) like for instance the Energy Amplifier concept (EA) proposed by C. Rubbia and his group might be one of the solutions to solve the energy problem and in particular to answer the question: what could we do with the nuclear waste produced by the present nuclear reactors? We present in this paper the EA concept, which is illustrated by two experiments performed at the CERN-PS facility. One of them is the TARC (Transmutation by Adiabatic Resonance crossing) experiment which is designed to demonstrate the high efficiency offered by the EA to destroy the long-lived fission fragments.

In the TARC experiment the differential neutron flux phi(E, (r) over right arrow) of a spallation of 2.5 and 3.5 GeV/c proton in large lead block is measured in the range between 0.1 eV and 1.5 MeV. A new technique, using small quantities (less than 0.1 gram) of material. is used for measuring the transmutation rate as a function of neutron energy in the range between 0.1 eV up to a few keV. The method is applied to a target of 86 mg (Tc-99) mixed with 1.7 g of Aluminum. From these measurements the energy profile of the capture cross section can be extracted.