Design of the Breeder Zone for the EU Helium Cooled Pebble Bed Test Blanket Module for ITER

This paper summarizes the design and development activities for the EU Helium Cooled Pebble Bed Test Blanket Module (HCPB TBM) Breeder Zone (BZ) performed in 2007 and 2008. The BZ design, based on two parallel cooling plates manufactured by milling/diffusion welding presented in 2005 has been changed in order to find an arrangement for the BZ based on manufacturing technology which is already state of the art (spark erosion/EB welding). Additionally the TBM box configuration has been redefined into a vertical arrangement. Taking into account these recent modifications the conceptual design of the BZ has been revised generally and also functional aspects of the BZ have been taken into account. This paper mainly recalls conceptual design activities with regard to the BZ arrangement and corresponds to which recalls the activities concerning the analysis done to evaluate the thermo-hydraulic behavior of the recent BZ design.