Neutronics Experimental Study on Tritium Production in Solid Breeder Blanket Mockup with Neutron Reflector

Abstract

Neutronics experiments have been performed for the solid breeder blanket using a DT neutron source at the FNS facility in JAEA. We have applied the blanket mockup composed of two enriched Li₂TiO₃ and three beryllium layers, and measured the detailed spatial distribution of the tritium production rate (TPR) using enriched Li₂CO₃ pellets. TPRs in the pellets have been measured by a liquid scintillation counter. Experiments have been done under a condition with a neutron reflector surrounding the DT neutron source. Numerical simulations have been performed using the MCNP-4C with the FENDL-2.0 and JENDL-3.3. The ranges of ratios of calculation results to experimental ones (C/Es) are 0.97–1.17 concerning with local TPR, and 1.04–1.09 for the integrated tritium production. It is found that the total integrated tritium production, which corresponds to tritium breeding ratio, can be predicted within uncertainty of 10% using the Monte Carlo calculation code and latest nuclear data libraries.

KEYWORDS:

• blanket
• TPR
• neutronics experiment
• Monte Carlo calculation
• reflector
• DT neutron
• beryllium
• Li₂TiO₃
• JENDL-3.3
• FENDL-2.0