ARC reactor neutronics multi-code validation*

Bae, Jin Whan; Peterson, Ethan; Shimwell, Jonathan

doi:10.1088/1741-4326/ac5450

Cited by 16 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Considering an isotropic neutron emission, the toroidal geometry imposes a 1/r radial decrease of the fluence from the FW outwards, since the particles distribute approximately over the surface area of a torus. Despite the fact that the spectrum and fluences obtained here are in reasonable agreement with those from three-dimensional simulations of a similar design [19], it is important to highlight that fine features of the spectra and fluences in different regions of the magnet system can only be captured with a full geometry implementation. Considering the spatial constraints in the design, a precise knowledge of the radiation damage over the volume of the magnet will be necessary to optimize the shielding design.…”

Section: Monte Carlo Simulationssupporting

confidence: 53%

Expected radiation environment and damage for YBCO tapes in compact fusion reactors

Torsello¹,

Gambino²,

Gozzelino³

et al. 2022

Supercond. Sci. Technol.

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We investigate the neutron damage expected in the high temperature superconducting tapes that will be employed in compact fusion reactors. Monte Carlo simulations yield the expected neutron spectrum and fluence at the magnet position, from which the primary knock on atom energy distributions can be computed for each atomic species composing the superconductor. This information is then employed to characterize the displacement cascades, in terms of size and morphology, through Molecular Dynamics simulations. The expected radiation environment is then compared to the neutron spectrum and fluences achievable at the facilities currently available for experimental investigation, in order to highlight similarities and differences that could be relevant to the understanding of the radiation hardness of these materials in real fusion conditions. We find that the different neutron spectra result in different damage regimes, the irradiation temperature influences the amount of the generated defects, and the interaction of the neutrons with the superconductor results in a local increase of temperature. These observations suggest that further experimental investigations in different regimes are needed, and that some neutron shielding will be necessary in compact fusion reactors.

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Section: Monte Carlo Simulationssupporting

confidence: 53%

Expected radiation environment and damage for YBCO tapes in compact fusion reactors

Torsello¹,

Gambino²,

Gozzelino³

et al. 2022

Supercond. Sci. Technol.

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“…For both the ambitious and moderate t d targets, TBR r is well within the expected achievable range (<1.15) if FC and PO technologies improve with respect to the baseline case. The neutronics analysis carried out by Bae et al [17] reported a TBR a = 1.053 for an Inconel-718 VV in ARC. A similar result is reported in [11], which used a simplified neutronics model of an ARC-class plant and calculated a TBR a = 1.07.…”

Section: Implications For Arc-class Tokamak Design and Operationsmentioning

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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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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“…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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ARC reactor neutronics multi-code validation*

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Expected radiation environment and damage for YBCO tapes in compact fusion reactors

Expected radiation environment and damage for YBCO tapes in compact fusion reactors

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

Review of commercial nuclear fusion projects

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