Conceptual studies of a two-phase liquid metal cooled blanket system for magnetically confined fusion reactors

Abstract

The authors have proposed a helium-lithium two-phase flow cooled system for the blanket and first wall of magnetically confined fusion reactors in order to correct the defects of pressurized water cooled systems and liquid metal cooled systems. The heat transfer and magnetohydrodynamic pressure drop of He-Li two-phase flow have been investigated in horizontal rectangular channels under various flow rates of both fluids and conditions of system pressure and magnetic field perpendicular to the flow direction to establish the fundamental thermo-hydraulic data base required for planning. In this paper, a blanket and the first wall are fundamentally examined under the plasma conditions of “STARFIRE” by computing neutronics, shielding, heat transfer, magnetohydrodynamics and so forth based on the experimental results, as the first step of this study. Furthermore, a conceptual helium-lithium two-phase flow cooled system is proposed and the components of a two-phase separation system and steam generator are designed.