Recent discovery of a Higgs boson boosted interest in a low-energy medium-luminosity Muon Collider as a Higgs Factory (HF). A preliminary design of the HF storage ring (SR) is based on cos-theta Nb3Sn superconducting (SC) magnets with the coil inner
diameter ranging from 50 cm in the interaction region to 16 cm in the arc. The coil cross-sections were chosen based on the operation margin, field quality and quench protection considerations to provide an adequate space for the beam pipe, helium channel and inner absorber (liner). With the 62.5-GeV muon energy and 2 x 10^12 muons per bunch, the electrons from muon decays deposit about 300 kW in the SC magnets, or unprecedented 1 kW/m dynamic heat load, which corresponds to a multi-MW room temperature equivalent. Based on the detailed MARS15 model built and intense simulations, a sophisticated protection system was designed for the entire SR to bring the peak power density in the SC coils safely below the quench limit and reduce the dynamic heat load to the cold mass by a factor of 100. The system consists of tight tungsten masks in the magnet interconnect regions and elliptical tungsten liners optimized for each magnet.
A preliminary study of the Energy Production Demonstrator (EPD) concept - a solid heavy metal target irradiated by GeV-range intense proton beams and producing more energy than consuming - is carried out. Neutron production, fission, energy depositio
n, energy gain, testing volume and helium production are simulated with the MARS15 code for tungsten, thorium, and natural uranium targets in the proton energy range 0.5 to 120 GeV. This study shows that the proton energy range of 2 to 4 GeV is optimal for both a natU EPD and the tungsten-based testing station that would be the most suitable for proton accelerator facilities. Conservative estimates, not including breeding and fission of plutonium, based on the simulations suggest that the proton beam current of 1 mA will be sufficient to produce 1 GW of thermal output power with the natU EPD while supplying < 8% of that power to operate the accelerator. The thermal analysis shows that the concept considered has a problem due to a possible core meltdown; however, a number of approaches (a beam rastering, in first place) are suggested to mitigate the issue. The efficiency of the considered EPD as a Materials Test Station (MTS) is also evaluated in this study.
