EUROPEAN HELIUM COOLED PEBBLE BED BLANKET - DESIGN OF BLANKET - MODULE TO BE TESTED IN ITER

The helium-cooled pebble bed (HCPB) blanket for a fusion DEMO reactor is based on the use of separate small lithium orthosilicate and beryll ium pebble beds placed between radial toroidal cooling plates. The coo ling is provided by helium at 8 MPa. The tritium produced in the pebbl e beds is purged by the flow of helium at 0.1 MPa. The structural mate rial is martensitic steel. It is foreseen, after extensive R&D, to tes t in ITER a blanket module based on the HCPB design which is one of th e two European proposals for the ITER Test Blanket Programme. To facil itate the handling operations, the blanket test module (BTM) is bolted to a surrounding water cooled frame fixed to the ITER shield blanket back plate. For the design of the test module, 3D Monte Carlo neutroni c calculations and thermo-hydraulic and stress analyses for the operat ion during the basic performance phase (BPP) and during the extended p erformance phase (EPP) of ITER have been performed. The behaviour of t he test modules during LOCA, LOFA and electromagnetic transients has b een investigated. Conceptual designs of the required ancillary loops h ave been performed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved .