ITER test-blanket safety assessment

Abstract

One of the missions of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project is to serve as a test bed for various test blanket concepts. Part of the design for these test modules is to assess their impact on the safety of ITER. This paper presents a set of safety analyses, which were performed on a consistent basis of analysis assumptions and safety requirements. The four basic concepts investigated are a helium-cooled ceramic breeder, a water-cooled ceramic breeder, a water-cooled Pb-17Li breeder, and a liquid lithium self-cooled concept. The analysis performed so far has confirmed the expectation of little safety impact from the test modules, except in a few areas. The use of liquid lithium poses well-known risks of chemical reactivity, which need to be further addressed. For the water-cooled Pb-17Li concept the need was confirmed for further R&D on reactivity of Pb-17Li with water to quantitatively assess bounding scenarios. For the water-cooled ceramic test module the analysis has identified the issue of excessive Be-steam reactions, which needs further investigations.