Status, Features, and Future Development of the LIFUS5/Mod4 Experimental Facility Design

Abstract

The Water-Cooled Lithium–Lead (WCLL) is one of the most promising technologies for power conversion and tritium production in future fusion-powered reactors; it will be implemented in one of the Test Breeding Modules (TBM) inside the ITER reactor and the DEMO EU reactor. However, the simultaneous presence in the system of high-temperature PbLi and high-pressure water poses significant safety issues in the event of an in-box LOCA (Loss Of Coolant Accident). For this reason, a complete understanding of the system response is crucial to avoid extensive damage in such a scenario. This paper describes the status and design features of the LIFUS5/Mod4 facility, an experimental plant that is currently being designed and constructed at ENEA CR Brasimone in the framework of the FP9 EUROfusion Horizon Europe to address these issues. This facility aims at being representative of the geometry and operational conditions of the Test Breeding System (TBS) to allow the precise reproduction of its behavior under simulated incidental scenarios. For this reason, peculiar design choices have been made, which will be extensively discussed throughout this work and which will allow the generation of high-quality data useful for the TBS development. Moreover, the facility is expected to become a test stand for the implementation of different safety functions, to identify the best accident-mitigation strategy. Possible upgrade plans for the facility are described as well, with the chance for it to become a fully functional test stand for any component of the TBS in their operative conditions.

W-HYDRA: a new experimental platform for the Water-Cooled Lead Lithium Breeding Blanket

“…LIFUS5/Mod4 is a PbLi facility aimed at the investigation of the PbLi-water interaction [9] at TBM scale to validate numerical models and tools currently adopted for modelling this phenomenon [10]. Indeed, one of the main concerns in terms of safety of the WCLL BB/TBM is the occurrence of an in-box Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA) due to the rupture of a cooling tube dived in the PbLi.…”

PbLi/Water Reaction: Experimental Campaign and Modeling Advancements in WPBB EUROfusion Project

“…With this purpose, a new integral test facility, named LIFUS5/Mod4, is being constructed at ENEA RC Brasimone [24], designed to be as representative as possible of the WCLL TBS PbLi loop [41]. The main expected scientific outcomes and technological advancements of this facility include:…”

“…The addressing of postulated in-box LOCA events by means of an approach that permits prevention of the occurrence, evaluation of the consequences, and investigation of countermeasures to mitigate the transient. This last point requires extensive numerical simulations and appropriate tools, i.e., the development of a coupling technique to perform transient analyses considering the chemical, thermo-hydraulic, and structural effects due to PbLi/water interaction [17][18][19][20][21] and numerical code to expand the simulation capabilities in fusion applications [22,23], validated against Integral Test Facility experiments [24] currently in progress as part of the FP9 Project.…”