Heat deposition, damage, and tritium breeding characteristics in thick liquid wall blanket concepts

The advanced power extraction (APEX) study aims at exploring new and innova tive blanket concepts that can efficiently extract power from fusion device s with high neutron wall load. Among the concepts under investigation is th e free liquid FW/liquid blanket concept in which a fast flowing liquid FW ( similar to 2-3 cm) is followed by thick flowing blanket (B) of similar to 4 0-50 cm thickness with minimal amount of structure. The liquid FW/B are con tained inside the vacuum vessel CW) with a shielding zone (S) located eithe r behind the VV and outside the vacuum boundary (case A) or placed after th e FW/B and inside the W (case B). In this paper we investigate the nuclear characteristics of this concept in terms of: (1) attenuation capability of the liquid FW/B/S and protection of the W and magnet against radiation dama ge; (2) profiles of tritium production rate and tritium breeding ratio (TBR ) for several liquid candidates; and (3) profiles of heat deposition rate a nd power multiplication. The candidate liquid breeders considered are Li, F libe, Li-Sn, and Li-Pb. Parameters varied are (1) FW/B thickness, L, (2) Li -6 enrichment and (3) thickness of the shield. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.