UWFDM-1311 Neutronics Analysis of a Self-Cooled Blanket for a Laser Fusion Plant with Magnetic Diversion

Government, nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. A blanket concept made of the low electrical conductivity SiC f /SiC composite and utilizing Li 17 Pb 83 as coolant and tritium breeder has been developed and integrated with the magnetic diversion system. Neutronics issues related to tritium breeding adequacy particularly with the area lost to the dump plates at the ring and point cusps were addressed. Radiation damage and lifetime considerations for the SiC f /SiC structural material were also addressed. Another issue of concern is providing adequate shielding for the superconducting cusp magnets. Detailed neutronics analyses show that tritium self-sufficiency can be achieved. A 0.5 m thick water-cooled steel shield that doubles as the vacuum vessel is a reweldable lifetime component and will provide adequate shielding for the magnets. The shape of the chamber differs from the earlier designs to better facilitate the directions of the diverted ions and the areas where they impact. Instead of being spherical, it consists of an upright cone on top of an inverted cone, with the mid-plane space reserved for a toroidal ring cusp dump. The apex of each cone has a polar cusp armored dump, which is exposed to some of the diverted ions. The blanket is divided into two segments on the top, and two segments on the bottom as shown in Fig. 1. One segment extends 5.8 m from the mid-plane, and is called the upper/lower mid blanket. It is followed by the second segment, which is called the upper/lower blanket and extends to the polar dump.