Design and feasibility of a pumping concept based on tritium direct recycling

Haertl, T.; Day, Christian; Giegerich, T.; Hanke, S.; Hauer, V.; Kathage, Y.; Lilburne, J.; Morris, W.; Tosti, Silvano

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2021.112969

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The design principle behind is related to equatorial launcher design. The information about the PCP of LP is provided in [8], and the location and the function of the PCP are introduced.…”

Section: Description Of the Barrier Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Development on the Remote Maintenance Tools and Strategy of the Port Closure Plate in DEMO

Li,

Wu,

Eskelinen

et al. 2024

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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In the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) and the demonstration power plant (DEMO), there are three kinds of ports: the upper port (UP), the equatorial port (EP), and the lower port (LP). The applications and structures of the upper, equatorial, and LPs are different between those of ITER and DEMO. In DEMO, the breeding blankets (BBs) could be removed from the UP, a multipurpose deployer is transported and installed in the EP, and the divertor is maintained through the LP. It is noted that during remote maintenance (RM), the operating environment must be safe for the operators. To achieve this goal, reliable RM tools and RM strategies must be designed and developed. One of the containment barriers of the tokamak is the port closure plates (PCPs), which weighs between 1.3 and 25 tons depends on its location, and the PCPs need to be removed during the maintenance process. Therefore, in this article, the current designs of the PCPs are first presented. Then, the RM tools in both commercial and research stages are studied for the RM of the PCPs. Next, the RM strategies are designed and developed for each port. Finally, suggestions for the development of different RM tools are proposed.

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“…The design principle behind is related to equatorial launcher design. The information about the PCP of LP is provided in [8], and the location and the function of the PCP are introduced.…”

Section: Description Of the Barrier Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Development on the Remote Maintenance Tools and Strategy of the Port Closure Plate in DEMO

Li,

Wu,

Eskelinen

et al. 2024

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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“…For this approach to work, technology developments are needed, in particular the system for fast separation of the hydrogen (D + T) from the rest of the exhaust gas in real-time. Presently the research in Europe is focused on plasma-assisted permeation through metal foil pumps (MFPs) [76,77] that could in principle be placed in the divertor ports if the plasma-assist can operate well there given the tesla-level fields, and if a large enough area of metal foil can be achieved within the available port cavities. This approach places some demands on the main tritium plant to process the hydrogen that is not separated initially (the present target is 80% of the D + T being extracted from the exhaust gas and fed back into the plasma), but 20% entering the main T plant is considered manageable in steady state and it is far less than the demands without this direct recirculation.…”

Section: Integration Example 2: How To Provide Tritium To the Plasma ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a fusion power plant: integration of physics and technology

Morris

Akers

Cox

et al. 2022

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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A fusion power plant can only exist with physics and technology acting in synchrony, over space (angstroms to tens of metres) and time (femtoseconds to decades). Recent experience with the European DEMO programme has shown how important it is to start integration early, yet go deep enough to uncover the integration impact, favourable and unfavourable, of the detailed physical and technological characteristics. There are some initially surprising interactions, for example, the fusion power density links the properties of materials in the components to the approaches to waste and remote maintenance in the context of a rigorous safety and environment regime. In this brief tour of a power plant based on a tokamak we outline the major interfaces between plasma physics and technology and engineering considering examples from the European DEMO (exhaust power handling, tritium management and plasma scenarios) with an eye on other concepts. We see how attempting integrated solutions can lead to discoveries and ways to ease interfaces despite the deep coupling of the many aspects of a tokamak plant. A power plant’s plasma, materials and components will be in new parameter spaces with new mechanisms and combinations; the design will therefore be based to a significant extent on sophisticated physics and engineering models making substantial extrapolations. There are however gaps in understanding as well as data – together these are termed “uncertainties”. Early integration in depth therefore represents a conceptual, intellectual and practical challenge, a challenge sharpened by the time pressure imposed by the global need for low carbon energy supplies such as fusion. There is an opportunity (and need) to use emerging transformational advances in computational algorithms and hardware to integrate and advance, despite the “uncertainties” and limited experimental data. We use examples to explore how an integrated approach has the potential to lead to consistent designs that could also be resilient to the residual uncertainties. The paper may stimulate some new thinking as fusion moves to the design of complete power plants alongside an evolving and maturing research programme.

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