ARC reactor – Neutron irradiation analysis

Segantin, Stefano; Testoni, Raffaella; Zucchetti, Massimo

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2020.111792

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Optimizing tritium usage in the vacuum chamber and keeping high power density are competing goals. Nevertheless, equation (16) shows that TBE can be also improved by increasing the pumping speed ratio Σ.…”

Section: Understanding Fueling Efficiency (η F ) Burn Fraction (F B )...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Meschini,

Ferry,

Delaporte-Mathurin

et al. 2023

Nucl. Fusion

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The limited tritium resources available for the first fusion power plants (FPPs) make fuel self-sufficiency and tritium inventory minimization leading issues in FPP design. This work builds on the model proposed by M. Abdou et al. \cite{abdou2020physics}, which analyzed the fuel cycle of a DEMO-class FPP with a time-dependent system-level model. Here, we use a modified version of their model to analyze the fuel cycle of an ARC-class tokamak and two versions of a STEP-class tokamak. The ARC-class tokamak breeds tritium in a FLiBe liquid immersion blanket (LIB), while the STEP-class tokamak breeds tritium utilizing either a liquid-lithium blanket design or an Encapsulated Breeding Blanket (EBB). A time-dependent system-level model is developed in Matlab Simulink~\textregistered\hspace{.2em} to simulate the evolution of tritium flows and tritium inventories in the fuel cycle. The main goals of this work are to assess tritium self-sufficiency of the ARC- and STEP-class designs and to determine quantitative design requirements that can be used to analyze the adequacy of a proposed fuel cycle system. These design requirements are aimed at achieving a low tritium inventory doubling time ($t_d$) and a low start-up inventory ($I_{\mathrm{startup}}$) while keeping the required tritium breeding ratio (TBR$_r$) as low as possible. We also consider how improvements in fuel cycle technology and plasma operations affect TBR$_r$ and $I_{\mathrm{startup}}$. The model results show that TBR$_r$ for ARC- and STEP-class FPPs should be achievable if the tritium burn efficiency (TBE) reaches 0.5-1\% (TBR$_r <$ 1.2). This assumes significant, but attainable, improvements over current abilities. However, the model results indicate that a FPP must achieve ambitious performance targets, including FPP availability $>$70\%, tritium processing time $<$4~h, and the implementation of direct internal recycling. If future research yields major improvements to achievable TBE, it may be possible to achieve tritium self-sufficiency while operating at lower availability and without implementing DIR.

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Section: Understanding Fueling Efficiency (η F ) Burn Fraction (F B )...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It also provides efficient heat conduction away from the coupled first wall (FW)-VV structure, which is very important at the high power density ARC proposes. Analyses of ARC have been carried out in the fields of materials science [10][11][12], thermal analysis [13][14][15], neutronics [13,[16][17][18], and plasma physics [2,13,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Meschini,

Ferry,

Delaporte-Mathurin

et al. 2023

Nucl. Fusion

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“…Power extraction and tritium breeding is fulfilled by a liquid breeding blanket consisting of a low-pressure, slow-flowing lithium beryllium fluoride molten salt (FLiBe) contained in a tank that surrounds the vacuum vessel. A TBR > 1 has been computed for different structural and functional materials in the LIB (Segantin et al, 2020;Bae et al, 2022). A classic thermodynamic cycle converts the thermal power extracted from the blanket to electricity.…”

Section: Commonwealth Fusion Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of commercial nuclear fusion projects

Meschini,

Laviano,

Ledda

et al. 2023

Front. Energy Res.

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Nuclear fusion technologies have re-gained momentum in the last decade thanks to their disruptive potential in different fields, such as energy production and space propulsion, and to new technological developments, especially high temperature superconductor tapes, which allow overcoming previous performance or design limits. To date, reviews of recent nuclear fusion designs are lacking. Therefore, this paper aims at giving a comprehensive overview of nuclear fusion concepts for industrial applications with a focus on the private sector. The designs are classified according to the three leading concepts for plasma confinement, namely, magnetic confinement, inertial confinement and magneto-inertial confinement. The working principles of the main devices are described in detail to highlight strengths and weaknesses of the different designs. The importance of the public sector on private projects is discussed. The technological maturity is estimated, and the main criticalities for each project are identified. Finally, the geographical distribution of the companies (or public institutions) pursuing the design of fusion devices for commercial applications is reported.

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“…It is stated that the first wall of the reactor is modelled from 1mm tungsten, the inner layer of the vacuum vessel is made of 1cm Inconel-718 material, the cooling channels are modelled from 2cm of FLiBe molten salt, the neutron propagation layer is modelled from 1cm of beryllium material, and the outer layer of the vacuum cup is modelled from 3cm of Inconel-718 material. FISPACT-2 programs were used to determine radiation damage and material isotropy, and OpenMC programs were used for flux and energy spectrum calculations [12]. Fenici et al…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the various tritium breeding materials on the tritium breeding ratio in ARC fusion reactor

ATALAY,

TUNÇ

2023

International Journal of Energy Studies

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This study deals with TBR (Tritium Breeding Ratio) performance of the four different types of molten salt (FLiBe, FLiNaK, FLiNaBe, FLiNaRb) which has four different Li-6 enrichment ratios (0%, 30%, 60%, 90%) Moreover, two different vacuum vessel materials (SiC composite and V4Cr4Ti alloy) have been used in ARC reactor geometry. In models with TBR ≥1.05, it has been desired to examine the sustainability of the tritium production of the reactor by removing the neutron multiplication layer from the design without using the toxic Beryllium element. The neutronic performance studies have been examined in OpenMC, which is an open-source Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport code. The TBR values of the different models obtained and the change of these values according to Li-6 enrichment were examined. Thus, in an ARC fusion reactor whose design studies are ongoing, different materials and design options, the performance of the reactor to provide sustainable tritium production will be examined, thus contributing to the literature and future studies.

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ARC reactor – Neutron irradiation analysis

Cited by 7 publications

References 38 publications

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Modeling and analysis of the tritium fuel cycle for ARC- and STEP-class D-T fusion power plants

Review of commercial nuclear fusion projects

Effect of the various tritium breeding materials on the tritium breeding ratio in ARC fusion reactor

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