Neutronics and Thermal Design Analyses of U.S. Solid Breeder Blanket for ITER

Abstract

The U.S. Solid Breeder Blanket is designed to produce the necessary tritium required for the ITER operation and to operate at power reactor conditions as much as possible. Safety, low tritium inventory, reliability, flexibility cost, and minimum R&D requirements are the other design criteria. To satisfy these criteria, the produced tritium is recovered continuously during operation and the blanket coolant operates at low pressure. Beryllium multiplier material is used to control the solid-breeder temperature. Neutronics and thermal design analyses were performed in an integrated manner to define the blanket configuration. The reference parameters of ITER including the operating scenarios, the neutron wall loading distribution and the copper stabilizer are included in the design analyses. Several analyses were performed to study the impact of the reactor parameters, blanket dimensions, material characteristics, and heat transfer coefficient at the material interfaces on the blanket performance. The design analyses and the results from the different studies are summarized.