A study on nuclear hydrogen production using a novel approach cobalt-chlorine thermochemical cycle in a laser driver fission fusion blanket for various molten salt fuels

Abstract

This study presents the hydrogen production potentials of laser inertial fusion engine (LIFE) reactor using two different molten-salt (ThF4 and UF4) fuels. For the hydrogen production method the Co–Cl cycle, which is one of the latest thermochemical cycles, was selected in this study. The neutronic calculations were performed with MCNP nuclear code. Flibe as the main constituent was mixed with 2 vol % ThF4 and 2 vol % UF4 heavy metal molten salt. The initial tritium breeding (TBR) values were computed as 1.124 and 1.133, respectively, for corresponding heavy metal molten salt vol. fractions. Blanket initial energy multiplication values (M) have been calculated as 1.277 and 1.339, respectively, as a result of exoenergetic neutron absorption in 6Li. The highest M values over plant operation was approximately be found as (at the end of the 34th and 35th years) 9.882 and 5.921, respectively. Fuel burnup (BU) in the blanket was computed as 7.9 GWd/tM and 40.7 GWd/tM for the ThF4 and UF4 fuels, respectively. The amount of the hydrogen production (m˙H2) was calculated as 8.987 kg/s and 4.942 kg/s for the same fuels, respectively. According to the numerical results that were acquired from the simulations it can be said that the considered LIFE molten-salt fusion reactor has a high neutronic performance and can produce a considerable amount of the hydrogen production.