R&D status on water cooled ceramic breeder blanket technology

Enoeda, Mikio; Tanigawa, Hisashi; Hirose, Takanori; Nakajima, Motoki; Sato, Satoshi; Ochiai, Kentaro; Konno, Chikara; Kawamura, Yoshinori; Hayashi, Takumi; Yamanishi, Toshihiko; et al.

Fusion Engineering and Design, 89(7-8), p.1131 - 1136, 2014/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2014.01.035

The development of a Water Cooled Ceramic Breeder (WCCB) Test Blanket Module (TBM) is being performed as one of the most important steps toward DEMO blanket in Japan. Regarding the fabrication technology development using F82H, the fabrication of a real scale mockup of the back wall of TBM was completed. Also the assembling of the complete box structure of the TBM mockup and planning of the pressurization testing was studied. The development of advanced breeder and multiplier pebbles for higher chemical stability was performed for future DEMO blanket application. From the view point of TBM test result evaluation and DEMO blanket performance design, the development of the blanket tritium simulation technology, investigation of the TBM neutronics measurement technology and the evaluation of tritium production and recovery test using D-T neutron in the Fusion Neutronics Source (FNS) facility has been performed.

Development of the water cooled ceramic breeder test blanket module in Japan

Enoeda, Mikio; Tanigawa, Hisashi; Hirose, Takanori; Suzuki, Satoshi; Ochiai, Kentaro; Konno, Chikara; Kawamura, Yoshinori; Yamanishi, Toshihiko; Hoshino, Tsuyoshi; Nakamichi, Masaru; et al.

Fusion Engineering and Design, 87(7-8), p.1363 - 1369, 2012/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2012.03.007

The development of a Water Cooled Ceramic Breeder (WCCB) Test Blanket Module (TBM) is being performed as one of the most important steps toward DEMO blanket in Japan. For the TBM testing and evaluation toward DEMO blanket, the module fabrication technology development by a candidate structural material, reduced activation martensitic/ferritic steel, F82H, is one of the most critical items from the viewpoint of realization of TBM testing in ITER. Fabrication of a real scale first wall, side walls, a breeder pebble bed box and assembling of the first wall and side walls have succeeded. Recently, the real scale partial mockup of the back wall was fabricated. The fabrication procedure of the back wall, whose thickness is up to 90 mm, was confirmed toward the fabrication of the real scale back wall by F82H. This paper overviews the recent achievements of the development of the WCCB TBM in Japan.

Compact DEMO, SlimCS; Design progress and issues

Tobita, Kenji; Nishio, Satoshi; Enoeda, Mikio; Kawashima, Hisato; Kurita, Genichi; Tanigawa, Hiroyasu; Nakamura, Hirofumi; Honda, Mitsuru; Saito, Ai*; Sato, Satoshi; et al.

Nuclear Fusion, 49(7), p.075029_1 - 075029_10, 2009/07

https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/49/7/075029

Recent design study on SlimCS focused mainly on the torus configuration including blanket, divertor, materials and maintenance scheme. For vertical stability of elongated plasma and high beta access, a sector-wide conducting shell is arranged in between replaceable and permanent blanket. The reactor adopts pressurized-water-cooled solid breeding blanket. Compared with the previous advanced concept with supercritical water, the design options satisfying tritium self-sufficiency are relatively scarce. Considered divertor technology and materials, an allowable heat load to the divertor plate should be 8 MW/m or lower, which can be a critical constraint for determining a handling power of DEMO (a combination of alpha heating power and external input power for current drive).

Research and development on Water-Cooled Solid Breeder Test Blanket Module in JAEA

Enoeda, Mikio; Tanigawa, Hisashi; Tsuru, Daigo; Hirose, Takanori; Ezato, Koichiro; Yokoyama, Kenji; Dairaku, Masayuki; Seki, Yohji; Suzuki, Satoshi; Mori, Kensuke*; et al.

Proceedings of 16th Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference (PBNC-16) (CD-ROM), 6 Pages, 2008/10

SlimCS; Compact low aspect ratio DEMO reactor with reduced-size central solenoid

Tobita, Kenji; Nishio, Satoshi; Sato, Masayasu; Sakurai, Shinji; Hayashi, Takao; Shibama, Yusuke; Isono, Takaaki; Enoeda, Mikio; Nakamura, Hirofumi; Sato, Satoshi; et al.

Nuclear Fusion, 47(8), p.892 - 899, 2007/08

https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/47/8/022

The concept for a compact DEMO reactor named "SlimCS" is presented. Distinctive features of the concept is low aspect ratio ( = 2.6) and use of a reduced-size center solenoid (CS) which has a function of plasma shaping rather than poloidal flux supply. The reduced-size CS enables us to introduce a thin toroidal field (TF) coil system which contributes to reducing the weight and construction cost of the reactor. SlimCS is as compact as advanced commercial reactor designs such as ARIES-RS and produces 1 GWe in spite of moderate requirements for plasma parameters. Merits of low-, i.e. vertical stability for high elongation and high beta limit are responsible for such reasonable physics requirements.

Concept of compact low aspect ratio Demo reactor, SlimCS

Tobita, Kenji; Nishio, Satoshi; Sato, Masayasu; Sakurai, Shinji; Hayashi, Takao; Shibama, Yusuke; Isono, Takaaki; Enoeda, Mikio; Nakamura, Hirofumi; Sato, Satoshi; et al.

Proceedings of 21st IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2006) (CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2006/10

http://www-naweb.iaea.org/napc/physics/FEC/FEC2006/html/node305.htm#60147

no abstracts in English

Feasibility study on the blanket tritium recovery system using the palladium membrane diffuser

Kawamura, Yoshinori; Enoeda, Mikio; Yamanishi, Toshihiko; Nishi, Masataka

Fusion Engineering and Design, 81(1-7), p.809 - 814, 2006/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2005.09.035

Tritium bred in the solid breeder blanket of a fusion reactor is extracted by passing of a helium sweep gas. Tritium is separated from sweep gas at the blanket tritium recovery system. Palladium membrane diffuser is one of the applicable processes for the blanket tritium recovery system. It is usually applied for hydrogen purification system such as TEP in ITER. However, it has been reported that the rate controlling step changes at lower hydrogen pressure such as the blanket sweep gas condition, and discussion about application for the blanket sweep gas condition is not enough. Recently, conceptual design of the demonstration reactor, named "DEMO2001", has been proposed from JAERI. In this report, the application of the Pd diffuser for the blanket sweep gas condition is discussed based on the condition of DEMO 2001.

Consideration on blanket structure for fusion DEMO plant at JAERI

Nishio, Satoshi; Omori, Junji*; Kuroda, Toshimasa*; Tobita, Kenji; Enoeda, Mikio; Tsuru, Daigo; Hirose, Takanori; Sato, Satoshi; Kawamura, Yoshinori; Nakamura, Hirofumi; et al.

Fusion Engineering and Design, 81(8-14), p.1271 - 1276, 2006/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2005.08.100

The design guideline for the blanket is decided to meet the mission of the DEMO plant which is expected to use technologies to be proven by 2020 and present an economical prospect of fusion energy in the operational time of the reactor. To moderate the technological extrapolation, the structural material of reduced activation ferritic steel (F82H), ceramic tritium breeder of LiTiO and neutron multiplier of Be are introduced. To improve the economical aspect, the coolant material of the supercritical water with inlet/outlet temperatures of 280/510C, coolant pressure of 25 MPa is chosen. Resultantly the thermal efficiency of 41% is achieved. To obtain higher plasma performance, MHD instabilities suppressing shell structure is adopted with structural compatibility to the blanket structure. To meet higher plant availability requirement (more than 75%), the hot cell maintenance approach is selected for the replaceable power core components.

In-situ tritium recovery behavior from LiTiO pebble bed under neutron pulse operation

Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Kikukawa, Akihiro*; Hoshino, Tsuyoshi; Nakamichi, Masaru; Yamada, Hirokazu*; Yamaki, Daiju; Enoeda, Mikio; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Kawamura, Hiroshi; Ito, Haruhiko; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 329-333(Part2), p.1248 - 1251, 2004/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2004.04.238

no abstracts in English

Nuclear, thermo-mechanical and tritium release analysis of ITER breeding blanket

Kosaku, Yasuo; Kuroda, Toshimasa*; Enoeda, Mikio; Hatano, Toshihisa; Sato, Satoshi; Sato, Shinichi*; Osaki, Toshio*; Miki, Nobuharu*; Akiba, Masato

JAERI-Tech 2003-058, 69 Pages, 2003/06

JAERI-Tech-2003-058.pdf:5.86MB

The design of the breeding blanket in ITER applies pebble bed breeder in tube (BIT) surrounded by multiplier pebble bed. It is assumed to use the same module support mechanism and coolant manifolds and coolant system as the shielding blankets. This work focuses on the verification of the design of the breeding blanket, from the viewpoints which is especially unique to the pebble bed type breeding blanket, such as, tritium breeding performance, tritium inventory and release behavior and thermo-mechanical performance of the ITER breeding blanket.