AbstractThe European ceramic breeder-inside-tube blanket design proposed for the DEMO plant is featured by helium-cooled poloidal breeder modules consisting of a shrouded bundle of breeder tubes contained in a pressure tube and surrounded by beryllium blocks. This kind of breeder modules raises some problems as far as the control of pressure losses and hot spots is concerned, problems which might, a priori, jeopardize the feasibility and performance of the blanket. Results of first thermal-hydraulic analyses, performed by means of heat transport and subchannel codes, prove however to be quite encouraging in this respect. The elimination of remaining uncertainties — not crucial for the viability of the proposed module design — will nevertheless require specific experiments.
Progress of water cooled ceramic breeder test blanket module system