0000000000448616
AUTHOR
Wolfgang Hering
Overview of the HCPB Research Activities in EUROfusion
In the framework of the EUROfusion’s Power Plant Physics and Technology, the working package breeding blanket (BB) aims at investigating four different BB concepts for an EU demonstration fusion reactor (DEMO). One of these concepts is the helium-cooled pebble bed (HCPB) BB, which is based on the use of pebble beds of lithiated ternary compounds and Be or beryllides as tritium breeder and multiplier materials, respectively, EUROFER97 as structural steel and He as coolant. This paper aims at giving an overview of the EU HCPB BB Research and Development (R&D) being developed at KIT, in collaboration with Wigner-RCP, BUTE-INT, and CIEMAT. The paper gives an outline of the HCPB BB design evolut…
Status of EU DEMO heat transport and power conversion systems
Abstract DEMO in Europe is considered to be the nearest-term reactor design to follow ITER and capable of demonstrating production of electricity, operating with a closed fuel-cycle and to be a facilitating machine between ITER and a commercial reactor. The aim of this paper is to show the design progress of the complex system’s “chain” devoted to the extraction of the plasma generated pulsed thermal power and its conversion into electricity delivered to the grid, including the Primary Heat Transport System (PHTS), the Power Conversion System (PCS) and the Intermediate Heat Transport System (IHTS) – provided by an Energy Storage System (ESS) – in between PHTS and PCS, which is introduced fo…
Pre-conceptual design of EU DEMO balance of plant systems: Objectives and challenges
Abstract The European Research Roadmap to the Realisation of Fusion Energy foresees that the DEMO reactor is going to succeed ITER in the pathway towards the exploitation of nuclear fusion, achieving long plasma operation time, demonstrating tritium self-sufficiency and producing net electric output on an industrial scale. Therefore, its design must be more oriented towards the Balance of Plant (BoP) than it is in ITER. Since the early pre-conceptual phase of the DEMO project, emphasis has been laid on identifying the main requirements affecting the overall architecture of the BoP. For instance, specific efforts and proper solutions have been envisaged to cope with the pulsed nature of the …