Requirements for helium cooled pebble bed blanket and R&D activities

This work aims to give an outline of the design requirements of the helium cooled pebble bed (HCPB) blanket and its associated R&D activities. In DEMO fusion reactor the plasma facing components have to fulfill several requirements dictated by safety and process sustainability criteria. In particular the blanket of a fusion reactor shall transfer the heat load coming from the plasma to the cooling system and also provide tritium breeding for the fuel cycle of the machine. KIT has been investigating and developed a helium-cooled blanket for more than three decades: the concept is based on the adoption of separated small lithium orthosilicate (tritium breeder) and beryllium (neutron multiplier) pebble beds, i.e. the HCPB blanket. One of the test blanket modules of ITER will be a HCPB type, aiming to demonstrate the soundness of the concept for the exploitation in future fusion power plants. A discussion is reported also on the development of the design criteria for the blanket to meet the requirements, such as tritium environmental release, also with reference to the TBM. The selection of materials and components to be used in a unique environment as the Tokamak of a fusion reactor requires dedicated several R&D activities. For instance, the performance of the coolant and the tritium self-sufficiency are key elements for the realization of the HCPB concept. Experimental campaigns have been conducted to select the materials to be used inside the solid breeder blanket and R&D activities have been carried out to support the design. The paper discusses also the program of future developments for the realization of the HCPB concept, also focusing to the specific campaigns necessary to qualify the TBM for its implementation in the ITER machine. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.