Current status and critical issues for development of SiC composites for fusion applications

Blanket/first wall challenges and required R&D on the pathway to DEMO

The European fusion programme is ‘reactor oriented’ and it is aimed at the successive demonstration of the scientific, the technological and the economic feasibility of fusion power. The European Power Plant Conceptual Study (PPCS) has been a study of conceptual designs of five commercial fusion power plants and the main emphasis was on system integration. It focused on five power plant models which are illustrative of a wider spectrum of possibilities. They are all based on the tokamak concept and they have approximately the same net electrical power output, 1500 MWe. These span a range from relatively near-term, based on limited technology and plasma physics extrapolations, to an advanced conception. The PPCS allows one to clarify the concept of DEMO, the device that will bridge the gap between ITER and the first-of-a-kind fusion power plant. An assessment of the PPCS models with limited extrapolations highlighted a number of issues that must be addressed to establish the DEMO physics and technological basis.

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Power plant conceptual studies in Europe

Design and material issues for high performance SiCf/SiC-based fusion power cores

A dual functional lithium–lead (DFLL) test blanket module (TBM) concept has been proposed for testing in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in China to demonstrate the technologies of the liquid lithium–lead breeder blankets with emphasis on the balance between the risks and the potential attractiveness of blanket technology development. The design of DFLL-TBM concept has the flexibility of testing both the helium-cooled quasi-static lithium–lead (SLL) blanket concept and the He/PbLi dual-cooled lithium–lead (DLL) blanket concept. This paper presents an effective testing strategy proposed to achieve the testing target of SLL and DLL DEMO blankets relevant conditions, which includes three parts: materials R&D and small-scale out-of-pile mockups testing in loops, middle-scale TBMs pre-testing in EAST and full-scale consecutive TBMs testing corresponding to different operation phases of ITER during the first 10 years. The design of the DFLL-TBM concept and the testing strategy ability to test TBMs for both blanket concepts in sequence and or in parallel for both ITER and EAST are discussed.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0029-5515/47/11/015/pdf

Conceptual design and testing strategy of a dual functional lithium–lead test blanket module in ITER and EAST

Breeding blanket design and systems integration for a helium-cooled lithium–lead fusion power plant

Within the scope of the design and qualification of a helium-cooled lithium–lead (HCLL) blanket module for DEMO, test blanket modules (TBM), have to be designed and inserted in ITER for testing. Several different TBMs will be tested in order to achieve the different testing objectives, according to the ITER operating scenario. This paper aims at presenting the design status of the so-called “integral-TBM (IN-TBM)”, which will include all main features of the corresponding DEMO blanket module, such as design architectures, Eurofer structural material, functional parameters, and all relevant manufacturing processes.

J. Szczepanski

Papers

Breeding blanket design and systems integration for a helium-cooled lithium–lead fusion power plant

HCLL TBM for ITER-design studies

R&D issues for SiCf/SiC composites structural material in fusion power reactor blankets

Progress on the TAURO blanket system

Tauro: a ceramic composite structural material self-cooled Pb—17Li breeder blanket concept