Design study on fuel buffer system for continuous processing of tritium processes considering burn and dwell operation scenarios

Abstract

The most important purpose of the tritium processes in the fusion fuel cycle is to stably supply tritium and deuterium to reduce operational uncertainty in the Tokamak. To achieve this, it is desirable for the process operation to be designed as a continuous process with a steady flowrate, pressure and composition. In this study, we aim to propose a modified concept of storage and delivery system, the Fuel Buffer System which is the main interface system between the tritium processing systems and Tokamak for the continuous operation in tritium processes. The buffer vessel is considered as a key interface equipment in the FBS to make steady feed or product stream. We evaluate the tritium inventory and the design impact of the FBS in a tokamak burn-and-dwell operating environment. By applying known ITER operating scenarios, we perform sensitivity analysis on the operating pressure of the buffer vessel and fuel cycle operation time. Based on the results, we suggest the design strategy for fusion fuel cycle in the K-DEMO.