Measurement of tritium production rate distribution in natural LiAlO2/HDPE assembly irradiated by D-T neutrons

A neutronics experiment was performed to measure the tritium production rate (TPR) profile in the breeder assembly with LiAlO2 as breeder and high density polyethylene (HDPE) as neutron reflector. The breeder assembly was irradiated with 14 MeV neutrons from DT neutron generator at IPR Neutronics Laboratory. The objective of the experiment was to validate the tritium production prediction capability of the Monte-Carlo code MCNP and FENDL 2.1 data library. The tritium production rate profile in the breeding assembly was measured by irradiating Li2CO3 pellets kept at various locations and then tritium counting liquid scintillation technique. Experiment was analyzed with 3D Monte-Carlo code MCNP with FENDL 2.1 cross-section data library. The calculation results were found to agree with the measured tritium production rates except one point near to the source. This experiment is a starting experiment in the series of benchmark experiments for the Indian Demo breeding blanket.