Reducing beryllium content in mixed bed solid-type breeder blankets
| Autor: | M. Kovari, J. McMillan, S. Zheng, L.W. Packer, J. Shimwell, L. Morgan, S. Lilley |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
Neutron transport
Nuclear engineering chemistry.chemical_element Blanket 01 natural sciences 010305 fluids & plasmas Low energy Materials Science(all) Tritium breeding ratio 0103 physical sciences Neutronics General Materials Science Neutron Fusion 010306 general physics Civil and Structural Engineering Energy Nuclear heating Mechanical Engineering Nuclear Energy and Engineering chemistry Environmental science Multiplier (economics) Beryllium |
| Zdroj: | Fusion Engineering and Design. :1564-1568 |
| ISSN: | 0920-3796 |
| Popis: | Beryllium (Be) is a precious resource with many high value uses, the low energy threshold (n,2n) reaction makes Be an excellent neutron multiplier for use in fusion breeder blankets. Estimates of Be requirements and available resources suggest that this could represent a major supply difficulty for solid-type blanket concepts. Reducing the quantity of Be required by breeder blankets would help to alleviate the problem to some extent. In addition, it is important that the reduction in the Be quantity does not diminish the blanket's performance in key aspects such as the tritium breeding ratio (TBR), energy multiplication and peak nuclear heating.\ud \ud Mixed pebble bed designs allow for the multiplier fraction to be varied throughout the blanket. This neutronics study used MCNP 6 to investigate linear variations of the multiplier fraction in relation to blanket depth, in order to better utilise the important multiplying Be(n,2n) and breeding reactions. Blankets with a uniform multiplier fraction showed little scope for reduction in Be mass. Blankets with varying multiplier fractions were able to simultaneously use 10% less Be, increase the energy amplification by 1%, reduce the peak heating by 7% and maintaining a sufficient TBR when compared to the performance achievable using a uniform composition. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full Text from ScienceDirect