Nuclear analysis of the HCLL “Advanced-Plus” breeding blanket

Abstract

In the frame of the European R&D effort to develop a fusion demonstrator (DEMO) a new concept of Helium Cooled Lithium Lead breeding blanket, called “Advanced-Plus” design, is studied to improve the tritium breeding. The aim of this paper is to present the nuclear analysis of this new HCLL design carried out with the TRIPOLI-4® Monte Carlo code and the Joint European Fission and Fusion nuclear data version 3.2 (JEFF-3.2). Nuclear quantities such as: neutron flux, tritium breeding ratio, nuclear heating, displacement damage and helium production are reported. Sensitivity analysis is also carried out to investigate the impact, in tritium breeding, of the next DEMO baseline with reduced outboard thickness and the advantage, in tritium production point of view, of the single module segment against the current multi-module segment option.