Tritium transport modeling at system level for the EUROfusion dual coolant lithium-lead breeding blanket. (18th August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Urgorri, F.R.; Moreno, C.; Carella, E.; Rapisarda, D.; Fernández-Berceruelo, I.; Palermo, I.; Ibarra, A.
• Is Part Of: Nuclear fusion. Volume 57:Number 11(2017:Nov.)
• Publication Date: 2017-08-18
• Subjects: transport modeling -- tritium -- DCLL -- DEMO; Nuclear fusion -- Periodicals; 621.48405
• DOI: 10.1088/1741-4326/aa7f9d
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0029-5515

Abstract

Abstract: The dual coolant lithium lead (DCLL) breeding blanket is one of the four breeder blanket concepts under consideration within the framework of EUROfusion consortium activities. The aim of this work is to develop a model that can dynamically track tritium concentrations and fluxes along each part of the DCLL blanket and the ancillary systems associated to it at any time. Because of tritium nature, the phenomena of diffusion, dissociation, recombination and solubilisation have been modeled in order to describe the interaction between the lead-lithium channels, the structural material, the flow channel inserts and the helium channels that are present in the breeding blanket. Results have been obtained for a pulsed generation scenario for DEMO. The tritium inventory in different parts of the blanket, the permeation rates from the breeder to the secondary coolant and the amount of tritium extracted from the lead-lithium loop have been computed. Results present an oscillating behavior around mean values. The obtained average permeation rate from the liquid metal to the helium is 1.66 mg h − 1 while the mean tritium inventory in the whole system is 417 mg. Besides the reference case results, parametric studies of the lead-lithium mass flow rate, the tritium extraction efficiency and the tritium solubility in lead-lithium have been performed showing the reaction of the system to the variation of these parameters.