Pre-conceptual design study on K-DEMO ceramic breeder blanket

A pre-conceptual design study has been carried out for the Korean fusion demonstration reactor (K-DEMO) tokamak featured by high magnetic field (B-ro = 7.4T), R=6.8 m, a = 2.1 m, and a steady-state operation. The design concepts of the K-DEMO blanket system considering the cooling in-vessel components with pressurized water and a solid pebble breeder are described herein. The structure of the K-DEMO blanket is toroidally subdivided into 16 inboard and 32 outboard sectors, in order to allow the vertical maintenance. Each blanket module is composed of plasma-facing first wall, layers of breeding parts, shielding and manifolds. A ceramic breeder using Li4SiO4 pebbles with Be12Ti as neuron multiplier is employed for study. MCNP neutronic simulations and thermo-hydraulic analyses are interactively performed in order to satisfy two key aspects: achieving a global Tritium Breeding Ratio (TBR) > 1.05 and operating within the maximum allowable temperature ranges of materials. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.