Core configuration of a gas-cooled reactor as a tritium production device for fusion reactor

Abstract

The performance of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor as a tritium production device is examined, assuming the compound LiAlO2 as the tritium-producing material. A gas turbine high-temperature reactor of 300MWe nominal capacity (GTHTR300) is assumed as the calculation target, and using the continuous-energy Monte Carlo transport code MVP-BURN, burn-up simulations are carried out. To load sufficient Li into the core, LiAlO2 is loaded into the removable reflectors that surround the ring-shaped fuel blocks in addition to the burnable poison insertion holes. It is shown that module high-temperature gas-cooled reactors with a total thermal output power of 3GW can produce almost 8kg of tritium in a year.