Investigation of the hydrogen production of a laser FUSION driver thorium breeder using various coolants

Abstract

In this present work, hydrogen production and neutronic calculations of a Laser Inertial Confinement Fusion Fission Energy (LIFE) driven thorium breeder using various coolants have been investigated. In the neutronic calculations for fusion driver power of 500 MWth has been examined with MCNP code. The 95 vol% Flibe or natural lithium 5 vol% TRISO coated ThC fuels have used in the neutronic calculations. Tritium breeding ratio (TBR) has been calculated as 1.08 and 1.19, respectively, for Flibe and natural lithium coolants. The energy multiplication values have been computed as 3.17 and 1.62, respectively, for these coolants. The burnup values with flibe and natural lithium have been obtained as 6 GWd/tM and 22 GWd/tM over 11 and 23 years, respectively. Also, the hydrogen production of a laser fusion driver thorium breeder using steam methane reforming (SMR), high temperature electrolysis (HTE) and sulfur-iodine (S–I) thermochemical water splitting processes have been performed. The highest hydrogen production values with flibe coolant of SMR method have been obtained as ~200 kg/s over 11 years.