Kinetic calculations were made to show that subcritical accelerator driven devices are robust and stable. The calculations show that large changes in reactivity that would lead to an uncontrollable excursion in a reactor would lead only to a new power level in a subcritical device. Calculations were also made to show the rate of power changes resulting from startup and shutdown, and that methods also exist for continously monitoring the reactivity of a subcritical system. ©American Institute of Physics 1995