MATERIALS DESIGN AND RELATED RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT ISSUES FOR THE FORCE-FREE HELICAL REACTOR (FFHR)

Materials issues related to the Force-Free Helical Reactor (FFHR) desi gn are presented. In FFHR, which uses the Flibe liquid breeder from th e main reason of safety, if there is no need to replace in-vessel mate rials in the lifetime of 30 years, the reactor can be operated with no t only the high safety margin but also a high availability of the plan t, resulting in reducing not only the cost of electricity (COE) but al so the total amount of radiative wastes. Nuclear properties of induced radioactivity, solid transmutation products, and decay heat at the 14 MeV neutron fluence of 45 MWa/m(2) as well as materials compatibility with Flibe are investigated for JLF-1, V-alloy, SiC and high Z materi als. In conclusion, control of metal impurities, transmutation of W an d V, acceptable decay heat, and reaction kinetics with Flibe are point ed out as R&D issues. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserv ed.