First principles review of options for tritium breeder and neutron multiplier materials for breeding blankets in fusion reactors

Abstract

The current breeding blankets proposed in the different conceptual fusion power plants are based mainly on the use of Li4SiO4 and/or Li2TiO3 as tritium breeder and Be/Be12Ti as neutron multiplier or an eutectic Li17Pb83 for as a hybrid tritium and neutron multiplier. While these materials offer some tritium breeding capabilities, some recent studies show that the tritium self-sufficiency may not be ensured with these materials due to the strong reduction of blanket coverage after the integration of other in-vessel reactor systems (heating and current drive, limiters, large or double-null divertor systems, etc.). Also, some materials like Be raises several key feasibility concerns. The goal of this paper is to perform an update of the screening for tritium breeder and neutron multiplier materials and to assess the tritium breeding performance of the selected compounds in order to reveal new options. As for the neutron multiplier materials, a new subdivision between solid and liquid multipliers is proposed. For the selected compounds, detailed 3D heterogeneous neutronic analyses have been performed with MCNP5-1.60 assuming the architecture of the current EU DEMO Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) as a benchmark breeding blanket. From the point of view of ceramic breeders, Li8ZrO6 has been found to outperform Li4SiO4 by more than 4% in terms of tritium breeding, having 6% higher melting point. From the point of view of solid neutron multipliers, Be12Cr, Be12V, Be13Zr and Be13Y show a similar performance as Be12Ti, while LaPb3, Zr5Pb4 and YPb2 offer a solution for a Be-free blanket. As for liquid multipliers, Pb in combination with a ceramic breeder shows a very promising option. Moreover, Pb compounds like Pb90Mn10 and Pb95Ba5 offer similar performance as Pb with a lower melting point (290 °C). Due to the significant advantages of molten Pb as neutron multiplier, future work will be conducted to define a design of a helium cooled Molten Lead Ceramic Breeder blanket, as simple, cost effective blanket concept.