Ricerc@Sapienza

The water-cooled lithium lead breeding blanket is one of the candidate systems considered for the implementation in the European Demonstration Power Plant (DEMO) nuclear fusion reactor. This concept employs lithium-lead liquid metal as tritium breeder and neutron multiplier, water pressurized at 15.5 MPa as coolant, and EUROFER as structural material. Current design is based on the Single Module Segment approach and follows the requirements of the DEMO-2015 baseline design.

A critical point in the design of liquid metal blankets for fusion reactors is the accurate estimate of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pressure losses caused by the interaction between flowing breeder and magnetic field. In the Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL), the liquid metal (PbLi) is used as tritium breeder and carrier, whereas power extraction is delegated to water, thus allowing to minimize the breeder velocity. However, pressure drop for the PbLi loop is expected to remain significant due to high field intensity and direct electrical contact at fluid/wall interface.