Experimental study on tritium breeding in water-cooled ceramic breeder blanket mock-up under D–T neutron irradiation conditions
Qingjun Zhu, Wuhui Chen, Jie Bao, Hua Du, Songlin Liu, Kai Huang
Abstract
Abstract The accurate assessment of tritium breeding parameters within fusion blankets is crucial for future magnet-confined fusion machines to realize fuel self-sufficiency. Such an assessment can be conducted using the simulation approach with nuclear data of high-fidelity and, most importantly, validated against experimental data. In this paper, we report neutronics experiment studies carried out on a mock-up of the water-cooled ceramic breeder blanket of the China fusion engineering test reactor (CFETR), irradiated at a deuterium–tritium (D–T) neutron source. The mock-up’s nuclear responses to 14 MeV neutrons, including tritium production rates (TPR) and neutron-induced reaction rates, are simulated and validated by experimental results. Redundant measurement techniques are used, including Li 2 TiO 3 pellets for offline TPR measurements and the developed lithium glass detector with a significantly reduced size for online TPR measurements. The validation of the TPR value is complemented by the experimental evaluation of the neutron-induced reaction rates for Au and Zr foils. All experimental results are analyzed using the MCNP-4C code and FENDL-3.0 nuclear data library. The source term for the Monte Carlo simulation is built using a newly-developed method based upon the modeling of the depth profiling of tritium in the tritiated target. The experiments are in good agreement with the simulations; ratios of the calculation to experimental results ( C / E ) on TPR are found to be 0.97–1.08. The influence of the first wall tungsten armor on the mock-up nuclear responses is also studied.