An assessment of models for tritium release from ceramic breeders for blanket analysis applications

Several models have been proposed and used to analyse the tritium release from ceramic breeder blankets. The transient models range from single-mechanism types of models to comprehensive, fully integrated models over a blanket spatial location, including all the key transport mechanisms, as well as local spatial temperature gradients. This paper considers different models available for analysis of tritium transport in ceramic breeders and performs a critical assessment of their applicability for blanket analysis and of their limits. Based on the analysis, the type of model which would be best suited for blanket analysis is described. It combines the possibility of including to a reasonable extent the effect of key transport mechanisms with the ease of integrating the computations over the whole blanket space, and provides the capability for both steady state and transient analyses.