Nuclear analysis of the first wall/blanket/shield of the Prometheus inertial fusion energy reactors

Author

Youssef, Mahmoud Z. ; Abdou, Mohamed A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech., Aerosp. & Nucl. Eng., California Univ., Los Angeles, CA, USA

Volume

2

fYear

1993

fDate

11-15 Oct 1993

Firstpage

765

Abstract

The design of the cavity and shielding system of the Prometheus reactors was undertaken by UCLA in conjunction with an IFE conceptual reactor study led by McDonnell Douglas. A wetted wall by a thin lead film was used as part of the first wall system (FWS) designated to protect the cavity against the microexplosions. The FWS is attached to the blanket/reflector/plena (B/R/P) system. For low activation consideration, SiC was used as the structural material and low pressure helium (1.5 MPa) was chosen as the coolant in the Li₂O B/R/P system. In this paper, the results of the neutronics parametric study that led to the baseline design of the FWS and B/R/P system are given. The attenuation characteristics of two types of shielding materials were studied, namely, reinforced concrete and low-activation Pb/B₄C composite. The latter was chosen as the bulk and beamlines shield due to its low activation

Keywords

fusion reactor blankets; fusion reactor materials; fusion reactor theory; fusion reactors; shielding; 1.5 MPa; B₄C; FWS; IFE conceptual reactor study; Li₂O; Li₂O B/R/P system; Pb; Prometheus inertial fusion energy reactors; attenuation characteristics; baseline design; blanket; blanket/reflector/plena system; cavity; first wall; first wall system; low activation consideration; low pressure He coolant; low-activation Pb/B₄C composite; microexplosions; neutronics parametric study; nuclear analysis; reinforced concrete; shield; structural material; thin lead film; wetted wall; Attenuation; Building materials; Coolants; Helium; Inductors; Lead; Optical films; Parametric study; Protection; Silicon carbide;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Fusion Engineering, 1993., 15th IEEE/NPSS Symposium on

Conference_Location

Hyannis, MA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1412-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FUSION.1993.518440

Filename

518440