Study of EU DEMO WCLL breeding blanket and primary heat transfer system integration

Abstract

The Water-Cooled Lithium Lead breeding blanket is a candidate option for the realization of European DEMO power plant. One of the main functions of the breeding blanket is to recover the thermal power from the first wall and the breeding zone and to drive it to the Primary Heat Transfer System. Moreover, due to the DEMO pulsed operation, an Energy Storage System is foreseen in order to ensure thermal energy availability and reduce cycling loading during dwell time. The blanket design must interface with the Primary Heat Transfer System and the Intermediate Heat Transfer System in an integrated solution with the aim of delivering feasible power plant, with high conversion efficiency.A thermal-hydraulic model of the main components of the water cooled Primary Heat Transfer System is developed, using RELAP5 system code, to support the design and sizing. A RELAP5/Mod3.3 extended version has been set-up to implement PbLi and molten salt (HITEC) fluid proprieties, as well as the relevant heat transfer correlations. The results of the preliminary applications provide a comprehensive set of thermo-hydraulic parameters (i.e. coolant inventory, pressure drops), relevant for the assessment of the design integration.