Neutronic analyses of PPA reactor blanket concepts

Two variants of the Helium-cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) blanket and an advanced version of the Dual Coolant Lithium Lead (DCLL) blanket have been investigated in the framework of the EU Power Plant Conceptual Study-Availability (PPA) with the main objective to explore their potential for a long lifetime and high power loading levels. This work presents the related neutronic analyses performed on the basis of three-dimensional Monte Carlo calculations for the PPA reactor to assess and optimise the nuclear performance of the considered blanket concepts.