Search results for "tritium breeding"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
Status of the EU DEMO HCLL breeding blanket design development
2018
International audience; In the framework of the European “HORIZON 2020” innovation and research programme, the EUROfusion Consortium develops a design of a fusion power demonstrator (DEMO). One of the key components in the fusion reactor is the Breeding Blanket (BB) surrounding the plasma, ensuring tritium self-sufficiency, heat removal for conversion into electricity, and neutron shielding. CEA-Saclay, with the support of Wigner-RCP and Centrum výzkumu Řež, is in charge of the development of one of the four BB concepts investigated in Europe for DEMO: the Helium Cooled Lithium Lead (HCLL) BB. The rationales of the HCLL are the use of Eurofer as structural material, eutectic liquid lithium-…
Characterisation and radiolysis of modified lithium orthosilicate pebbles with noble metal impurities
2017
Modified lithium orthosilicate (Li4SiO4) pebbles with additions of titanium dioxide (TiO2) are suggested as an alternative tritium breeding ceramic for the European solid breeder test blanket module. The noble metals – platinum (Pt), gold (Au) and rhodium (Rh), can be introduced into the modified Li4SiO4 pebbles during the melt-based process, due to the corrosion of Pt-Rh and Pt-Au alloy crucible components. In this study, the surface microstructure, chemical and phase composition of the modified Li4SiO4 pebbles with different contents of the noble metals was analysed. The influence of the noble metals on the radiolysis was evaluated after irradiation with accelerated electrons (E = 5 MeV),…
Behaviour of advanced tritium breeder pebbles under simultaneous action of accelerated electrons and high temperature
2017
The authors greatly acknowledge the technical and experimen-tal support of O. Valtenbergs and L. Avotina (Institute of Chemical Physics, University of Latvia). The work is performed in the frames of the University of Latvia financed project No. Y9-B044-ZF-N-300, “Nano, Quantum Technologies, and Innovative Materials for Eco-nomics”.
Advancements in the Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed Breeding Blanket for the EU DEMO: Holistic Design Approach and Lessons Learned
2019
The helium-cooled pebble bed (HCPB) blanket is one of the two concepts proposed as a driver blanket for the European Union Demonstration Fusion Power Reactor (EU DEMO). In contrast to past conceptual design studies, in the frame of the current Power Plant Physics and Technology of the EUROfusion Consortium, the ongoing EU DEMO preconceptual design activities have adopted a holistic and integrated (i.e., systems engineering) design approach. As a consequence of this new approach, many interfaces and requirements have been identified, some of them driving the design of the blankets. This paper shows the advancements in the HCPB breeding blanket and describes the lessons learned after implemen…
Overview of the HCPB Research Activities in EUROfusion
2018
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…
Assessment of the importance of neutron multiplication for tritium production
2016
Abstract One of the major requirements for a fusion power plant in the future is tritium self-sufficiency. For this reason the scientific community has dedicated a lot of effort to research activity on reactor tritium breeding blankets. In the framework of the international project DEMO, many concepts of breeding blanket have been taken into account and some of them will be tested in the experimental reactor ITER by means of appropriate test blanket modules (TBMs). All the breeding blanket concepts rely on the adoption of binary systems composed of a material acting as neutronic multiplier and another as a breeder. This paper addresses a neutronic feature of these kinds of systems. In parti…