Neutronic analysis of a dual He/LiPb coolant breeding blanket for DEMO

Abstract

A conceptual design of a DEMO fusión reactor is being deveioped under the Spanlsh Breeding Blanket Teclmology Progmmme: TECNO_FUS based on a He/LiPb dual coolant blanket as reference design option. The following issues have been analyzed to address the demonstration of the neutronic reliability of this conceptual blanket design; power amplificationcapacity of the blanket, tritium breeding capabílity for fuel self-sufficiency, power deposition due to nuclear heating in superconducting coils and material damage (dpa, gas production) to estímate the operational Ufe of the steel-made structural components in the blanket and vacuumvessel(W). In order tooptimize the shieldingof the coils different combinations of water and steel have been considered for the gapof the VV. The used neutrón source is based on an axisymmetric 2D fusión reaction profile for the given plasma equilibrium con figura don. MCNPX has been used for transpon calculations and ACAB has been used to handle gas production and damage energy cross sections.

Activation Analysis for a He/LiPb Dual Coolant Blanket for DEMO Reactor

“…The neutronic model 6 ( Fig. 1) is a simplified layered model generated with an Excel/CATIA interface and transferred to MCNP geometry format by MCAM.…”

“…[8][9][10]. The LiPb used is Pb-15.7 6 Li (using lithium enriched to 90 % 6 Li) with the impurities listed in Table I: …”

“…7 6 Li (90% 6 Li enrichment) serving as breeder and coolant, and with pressurized helium as primary coolant. The reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steel, Eurofer-97, is used as structural material in the blanket and 316-LN austenitic steel in the vacuum vessel (VV).…”

Qualification of MHD effects in dual-coolant DEMO blanket and approaches to their modelling

“…The amplification factor is estimated to be 1.16. The thermal load for the DRM geometry has been obtained from a 2D-axisymmetric neutronic assessment using a simplified, onion layer-like, isometric model from Catalán et al [4]. At the current status of the study, no poloidal distribution is considered.…”

“…At the current status of the study, no poloidal distribution is considered. From results in [4], the thermal load can be expressed following an exponential curve (Eq. (1)), where r stands for the distance to the first wall.…”