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.

A uranium thermometer has been designed and built in order to make local power measurements in the First Energy Amplifier Test (FEAT). Due to the experimental conditions power measurements of tens to hundreds of nW were required, implying a sensitivity in the temperature change measurements of the order of 1 mK. A uranium thermometer accurate enough to match that sensitivity has been built. The thermometer is able to determine the absolute energetic gain obtained in a tiny subcritical uranium assembly exposed to a proton beam of kinetic energies between 600 MeV and 2.75 GeV. In addition, the thermometer measurements have provided information about the spatial power distribution and the shape of the neutron spallation cascade.

An already existing, sub-critical arrangement made of natural uranium and water moderator has been exposed to a low intensity (≈ 109 ppp) proton beam from CERN-PS at several kinetic energies from 600 MeV to 2.75 GeV. The energy delivered by the hadronic cascade induced by the beam in the device has been measured by the temperature rise of small sampling blocks of uranium located in several different positions inside the device and counting the fissions in thin probe foils of natural uranium. We find typically G ≈ 30 in reasonable agreement with calculations, where G is the ratio of the energy produced in the device to the energy delivered by the beam. This result opens the way to the realisation of the so-called Energy Amplifier, a practical device to produce energy from thorium or depleted uranium targets exposed to an intense high energy proton beam. Results show that the optimal kinetic is ≥ 1 GeV, below which G decreases but is still acceptable in the energy range explored

The Optical Fiducial Volume Trigger system (OFVT) has been developed for use with the Rapid Cycling Bubble Chamber (RCBC), serving as a vertex detector in the European Hybrid Spectrometer (EHS). Its purpose is to decide whether an interaction took place within the useful (fiducial) volume of the chamber. In this way it complements the main interaction trigger which lacks the necessary accuracy of vertex localisation. The system can reduce the cost of film material, film treatment and scanning by up to 60%, the precise saving being dependent on the experimental conditions. The principle of the optical track detection by linear diode arrays is described, as well as details of the hardware construction. The properties of the system are discussed on the basis of results from the first run with RCBC.