Reduced beryllium requirements and increased tritium production in mixed bed breeder blankets

Reduced beryllium requirements and increased tritium production in mixed bed breeder blankets

Reduced beryllium requirements and increased tritium production in mixed bed breeder blankets 150 150 UKAEA Opendata
CCFE-PR(16)37

Reduced beryllium requirements and increased tritium production in mixed bed breeder blankets

One of the primary requirements for breeder blankets in commercial DT fusion reactors is to produce sufficient tritium to sustain the plasma. Mixed bed solid-type breeder blankets are one possible design being investigated for use in power producing reactors. Current mixed bed designs tend to utilise a uniform mixture of neutron multiplier Be12Ti and lithium ceramic throughout the blanket. Minimizing the use of beryllium is also a priority for solid-type breeder blankets due to the scarce nature of the element. This paper investigates a method of increasing the tritium production while simultaneously reducing the quantity of beryllium required in a mixed bed breeder blanket. This is achieved by varying the multiplier to breeder ratio as a function of blanket depth. The tritium production of mixed bed blankets with an optimum uniform composition is compared to mixed bed blankets with an optimum non-uniform composition while conserving beryllium mass. The resulting increase in TBR (Tritium Breeding Ratio) when using non-uniform blankets was found to be ~1% which equates to ~1kg per year in a 3GW fusion power plant operating at 70% availability. However, the beryllium usage in non-uniform blankets is shown to be ~14% lower than uniform blankets. Hence, the benefits of achieving both reduced beryllium and increased tritium production are substantial given the associated costs of $4,500 per kg for Be12Ti and $30,000 per gram for tritium.

Collection:
Journals
Journal:
Fusion Engineering and Design
Publisher:
Elsevier
Published date:
11/01/2016