Effect of outside tritium source on tritium balance of a D-T fusion reactor

Abstract

Attainable tritium breeding ration in the blanket system must be larger than the required breeding ratio when no effective tritium resources from outside are expected. It is revealed recently that a considerable amount of tritium can be trapped to the re-deposition layer of the first wall materials and that the time constant of this phenomenon is rather long. Then, the tritium breeding ratio around 1.1 is required in the blanket system when 3years is claimed for the tritium doubling time to prepare tritium for the initial inventory of a next reactor. Construction of an outside tritium supply is one of the possible ways to compensate the lack of tritium because it is generally considered that the attainable tritium breeding ratio in the solid breeder system is around 1.05. It is reported recently that a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor can produce 10kg of tritium per year. The preferable amount of tritium production rate of the outer tritium supply is discussed in this study from the viewpoint of tritium balance in a D-T power reactor.