On the nuclear response of the water-cooled Pb-17Li test blanket module for ITER-FEAT

Abstract

Within the European Fusion Technology Programme, the Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) DEMO breeding blanket line was selected in 1995 as one of the two EU lines to be developed in the next decades, in particular with the aim of manufacturing a Test Blanket Module (TBM) to be tested in ITER-FEAT. The present paper is focused on the study of the WCLL-TBM nuclear response in ITER-FEAT, being specifically oriented to the investigation of the local effects due to the typical C-shaped tubes of the breeder zone, since they could play a pivotal role in the module-relevant thermo/mechanical design. A 3D heterogeneous model of the WCLL-TBM, realistically simulating its new lay out and taking into account 9% Cr martensitic steel as reference structural material, has been set-up. A particular attention has been paid to the simulation of the characteristic ‘C’ shape of the breeder zone double walled tubes, which have been realistically reproduced. The WCLL-TBM model has been inserted into an existing ITER-FEAT 3D semiheterogeneous model accounting for a proper D-/T neutron source. Analyses have been performed by means of MCNP-4C code running on a cluster of four workstations through the implementation of a parallel virtual machine. For each analysis a large number of histories (>10.000.000) have been simulated, obtaining statistical uncertainties on the results lower than 3%. The main features of the WCLL-TBM nuclear response have been determined focusing the attention on power deposition density, material damage through DPA and He and H production rate, daily tritium production and tritium production rate radial distribution in the module. The obtained results are herewith presented and critically discussed.