Tritium processing systems for the helium cooled pebble bed test blanket module

Abstract

One of the most challenging issues for testing the different Test Blanket Modules (TBM) concepts in ITER is the demonstration of the ability to correctly and efficiently manage the bred tritium. For all TBM concepts the main auxiliary systems involved in this task are the Tritium Extraction System (TES), whose main purpose is to extract tritium from the breeder, making it available to the Tokamak Exhaust Processing system in the ITER Tritium Plant, and Coolant Purification System (CPS) which extracts the permeated tritium from He-coolant and keeps controlled the chemistry of the primary cooling circuit. Both these systems have to be compatible with: - the foreseen requirements from the TBM experimental campaign; - the ITER space requirements; - the requirements in terms of interface with the ITER Tritium Plant. In this paper, the composition and flow-rate of the gas stream to be processed by the tritium extraction system and coolant purification system in the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed Test Blanket Module is given for the high duty DT phase of ITER. Moreover, in the light of the operative conditions planned for the experimental campaign on the HCPB-TBM, a preliminary design of the TES and CPS is presented and discussed, with a first estimation of the required space for their installation.