A Feasible DEMO blanket concept based on water cooled solid breeder

Someya, Yoji; Tobita, Kenji; Uto, Hiroyasu; Hoshino, Kazuo; Asakura, Nobuyuki; Nakamura, Makoto; Tanigawa, Hisashi; Enoeda, Mikio; Tanigawa, Hiroyasu; Nakamichi, Masaru; Hoshino, Tsuyoshi

This paper presents the conceptual design of a blanket with simplified structure whose interior consists of the mixture of breeder and multiplier pebble bed, cooling tubes and support for them only. Neutronics calculation indicated that the blanket satisfies a self-sufficient production of tritium. An important finding is that little decrease is seen in TBR even when the gap between neighboring blanket modules is as wide as 0.03 m. This means that blanket modules can be arranged with such a significant clearance gap without sacrifice of tritium production. On the other hand, the thickness of blanket housing is important from the viewpoint of safety. The blanket housing may rupture when the cooling pipe in the blanket is tearing, because thickness of structure materials is thin as 22 mm. This thickness is expected to maintain to 8 MPa in the steam pressure. Finally, the blanket housing, and aspect ratio of blanket shape is proposed in consideration of TBR, and engineering problem such as maintenance and manufacture are discussed.