Preliminary thermal design and related DEMO relevancy of the EU-HCPB TBM in vertical arrangement

Abstract

In the frame of the activities of the European Test Blanket Module Consortium of Associates the Helium-Cooled Pebble-Bed Test Blanket Module (HCPB TBM) is developed in Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK) to investigate DEMO relevant concepts for blanket modules. A series of four different HCPB TBMs of the EU will be installed into the ITER Vacuum Vessel connected to one dedicated equatorial port. During different test campaigns, the 4 TBMs will test the three main functions of a blanket module (removing heat, breeding tritium and shielding sensitive components from radiation). In 2006–2007 a preliminary version of the HCPB TBM sub-components design has been proposed extrapolating the neutronic analyses performed for the horizontal HCPB TBM. With the input data provided by the preliminary design, together with the ITER 3D 40° toroidal sector model, new nuclear analyses for the vertical HCPB TBM have been performed. Nuclear results are necessary to assess the sub-components design and to validate the design of the HCPB TBM: with this aim thermal analyses of a 1/4 scaled assembly of the vertical HCPB TBM have been performed. As the generation of data in ITER supporting the design of DEMO is very important in the road map to the commercial fusion reactor, the results of nuclear and thermal analyses are fundamental to perform studies concerning the TBM DEMO relevancy.