Shielding Design Optimization of the Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed Breeding Blanket for the EU DEMO Fusion Reactor

Iole Palermo (), Francisco A. Hernández, Pavel Pereslavtsev, David Rapisarda and Guangming Zhou
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Iole Palermo: CIEMAT, Fusion Technology Division, Avda. Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Francisco A. Hernández: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76131 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
Pavel Pereslavtsev: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76131 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
David Rapisarda: CIEMAT, Fusion Technology Division, Avda. Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Guangming Zhou: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76131 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-24

Abstract: The helium-cooled pebble bed (HCPB) breeding blanket (BB) is one of the two driver-blanket candidates for the European DEMO fusion reactor. Recent design activities were focused, among other objectives, on the achievement of an efficient shielding system to adequately protect the vacuum vessel (VV) and toroidal field coils (TFCs). Several shielding options have been studied in terms of architecture (e.g., in-BB shield and ex-BB shield) and materials (e.g., B 4 C, WC, WB, YHx, and ZrHx). In this study, the B 4 C material was selected as the most attractive option considering not only shielding performance but also availability, industrialization, experience, and cost factors. Subsequently, we performed a parametric study by implementing different thicknesses of a B 4 C external shield and reporting information of its effect on shielding performance, structural behavior, swelling and tritium breeding. Furthermore, a detailed structure for the VV was developed considering an internal layered configuration comprising steels/water with different boron contents. Corresponding shielding analyses were conducted regarding influence on neutron attenuation when implementing such a VV structure for both the baseline consolidated design of the HCPB and one of the previously developed and improved BSS configurations. The most critical responses (neutron flux and dpa) were fully established only using 10 cm B 4 C and an improved VV configuration.

Keywords: shielding; boron carbide; HCPB blanket; DEMO; neutronics; nuclear fusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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