MEGAPIE project, experience of electromagnetic pumps operation in the swiss spallation neutron source

The MEGAPIE project with the aim to design, build and operate a 1 MW liquid metal target in the SINQ facility (Swiss Spallation Neutron Source, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland) was a key experiment on the way to experimental accelerator driven systems (ADS) for transmutation of nuclear waste and for the development of liquid metal spallation targets. The electromagnetic pump system for the target, consisting of two electromagnetic pumps and two flowmeters, was designed and fabricated at the Institute of Physics, University of Latvia (IPUL) in 2003-2004. ATEA (France) integrated the pumps into the target in the beginning of 2005. The assembled target was commissioned at PSI in the frame of the MEGAPIE integral test (MIT) at the end of 2005. The target was being irradiated in the SINQ during 18 weeks in August-December 2006 in the course of the MEGAPIE-SINQ experiment . It was one of the first high-power liquid metal targets coupled with a proton accelerator and operating in a spallation source under full-service conditions.