Tritium analysis of a water-cooled solid breeder blanket for ITER

Quantitative predictions are presented for the tritium release and inventory in a water-cooled solid breeder blanket for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The predictions were obtained from the tritium transport code MISTRAL, recently developed at UCLA. The blanket consists of a layout assembly of solid breeder and beryllium multiplier, with two layers of solid breeder in the outboard region and one layer in the inboard region. The analysis includes steady-state inventory evaluations as well as transient calculations under assumed ITER pulsed operation. Different scenarios were investigated, including operation at reduced power level. Key parameters affecting the kinetics of the tritium release and the inventory evolution considered in the investigation are discussed; they include the solid breeder microstructure, and purge gas composition, and the operating burn and dwell times