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

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)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies (Basel) 2022-08, Vol.15 (15), p.5734
Main Authors: Palermo, Iole, Hernández, Francisco A., Pereslavtsev, Pavel, Rapisarda, David, Zhou, Guangming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blankets (fusion reactors)
Boron
boron carbide
Breeding
Configurations
DEMO
Design
Design optimization
Field coils
Fusion reactors
HCPB blanket
Helium
Neutron flux
neutronics
nuclear fusion
Nuclear reactors
Reactors
Shielding
Structural behavior
Tritium
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Summary: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., B4C, WC, WB, YHx, and ZrHx). In this study, the B4C 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 B4C 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 B4C and an improved VV configuration.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en15155734