Impact of hafnium content on nuclear performance of breeder and multiplier materials containing zirconium in fusion assemblies

Abstract

The reduction of hafnium content in blanket materials containing zirconium is costly. Therefore, a sensitivity analysis was performed to estimate the impact of hafnium content on nuclear properties of lithium metazirconate Li/sub 2/ZrO/sub 3/ and of Zr/sub 5/Pb/sub 3/, promising breeder-multiplier system candidate for fusion reactors. This paper summarises the results of extensive shielding neutronic analysis and transmutation-activation calculations aiming to evaluate the tritium breeding ratio, the inventories of various radio nuclides, and the surface /spl gamma/-dose rate, both for breeder and multiplier materials containing hafnium impurities. 1-D neutron transport fixed source analysis has been performed with the XSDRNPM code, using the 171-group VITAMIN-C cross section library, based on ENDF/B-V and JEF2.2 basic data. The activation calculations were performed with the ANITA code, using updated cross section and decay data libraries based on EAF-3 evaluation files. A comparison between Zr/sub 5/Pb/sub 3/ and beryllium multipliers in different design configurations including homogenised solid breeder mixtures of Li/sub 2/ZrO/sub 3/ and structural materials has been performed.