The CHIMERA facility development programme

Barrett, T.; Bamford, M.; Chuilon, B.; Deighan, Tom; Efthymiou, P.; Fletcher, L.; Gorley, Michael; Grant, T.; Hall, T.; Horsley, D.; Kovari, M.; Tindall, Michelle

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2023.113689

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 5 publications

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“…Burning deuterium-tritium plasma is going to be producing energy in the form of 14.1 MeV neutrons, and yet performing neutron irradiation experiments at the component scale with a fusion neutron energy spectrum, reaching the high dose expected in an operating reactor, is still not possible. Experimental facilities presently under construction either ignore neutron irradiation effects [3] or focus on testing materials solely on a small spatial scale [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finite element models for radiation effects in nuclear fusion applications

Reali,

Dudarev

2024

Nucl. Fusion

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Deuterium-tritium fusion reactions produce energy in the form of 14.1 MeV neutrons, and hence fusion reactor components will be exposed to high energy neutron irradiation while also being subjected to thermal, mechanical and magnetic loads. Exposure to neutron irradiation has numerous consequences, including swelling and dimensional changes, comparable in magnitude to the peak transient thermal deformations occurring in plasma-facing components. Irradiation also dynamically alters the various thermo-mechanical properties, relating temperature, stress and swelling in a strongly non-linear way. Experimental data on the effect of neutron exposure spanning the design parameter space are very sparse and this highlights the relevance of computer simulations. In this study we explore the equivalence between the body force/surface traction approach and the eigenstrain formalism for treating anisotropic irradiation-induced swelling. We find that both commercial and massively parallelised open source software for finite element method (FEM) simulations are suitable for assessing the effect of neutron exposure on the mechanically loaded reactor components. We demonstrate how two primary effects of irradiation, radiation swelling and the degradation of thermal conductivity, affect the distributions of stress and temperature in the divertor of the ITER tokamak. Significant uncertainties characterising the magnitude of swelling and models for treating it suggest that on the basis of the presently available data, only an order of magnitude estimate can be given to the stress developing in reactor components most exposed to irradiation during service.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finite element models for radiation effects in nuclear fusion applications

Reali,

Dudarev

2024

Nucl. Fusion

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Advancements in Designing the DEMO Driver Blanket System at the EU DEMO Pre-Conceptual Design Phase: Overview, Challenges and Opportunities

Hernández

Arena

Boccaccini

et al. 2023

JNE

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The EU conducted the pre-conceptual design (PCD) phase of the demonstration reactor (DEMO) during 2014–2020 under the framework of the EUROfusion consortium. The current strategy of DEMO design is to bridge the breeding blanket (BB) technology gaps between ITER and a commercial fusion power plant (FPP) by playing the role of a “Component Test Facility” for the BB. Within this strategy, a so-called driver blanket, with nearly full in-vessel surface coverage, will aim at achieving high-level stakeholder requirements of tritium self-sufficiency and power extraction for net electricity production with rather conventional technology and/or operational parameters, while an advanced blanket (or several of them) will aim at demonstrating, with limited coverage, features that are deemed necessary for a commercial FPP. Currently, two driver blanket candidates are being investigated for the EU DEMO, namely the water-cooled lithium lead and the helium-cooled pebble bed breeding blanket concepts. The PCD phase has been characterized not only by the detailed design of the BB systems themselves, but also by their holistic integration in DEMO, prioritizing near-term solutions, in accordance with the idea of a driver blanket. This paper summarizes the status for both BB driver blanket candidates at the end of the PCD phase, including their corresponding tritium extraction and removal (TER) systems, underlining the main achievements and lessons learned, exposing outstanding key system design and R&D challenges and presenting identified opportunities to address those risks during the conceptual design (CD) phase that started in 2021.

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The CHIMERA facility development programme

Cited by 2 publications

References 5 publications

Finite element models for radiation effects in nuclear fusion applications

Finite element models for radiation effects in nuclear fusion applications

Advancements in Designing the DEMO Driver Blanket System at the EU DEMO Pre-Conceptual Design Phase: Overview, Challenges and Opportunities

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