Neutronics issues for starlight: An inertial confinement fusion reactor concept

Conference · Sat Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/FUSION.1989.102473· OSTI ID:5466924

Tobin, M. T. ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)

Features of the STARLIGHT reactor concept may represent significant improvements in ICF reactor design. The reactor will allow an arbitrary illumination geometry for the reactor driver, the reactor will have few moving parts, and the use of a shield integrated with the ICF target assembly will extend the bare first wall lifetime otherwise limited by the wall ablation caused by x rays and target debris. Here we discuss an evolving design by reporting results of 1- and 2-D calculations involving tritium breeding, neutron damage, and the beam port neutron leakage. We conclude that an ICF reactor using a solid breeder is feasible. A low-temperature'' option is the use of a steel first wall and Li{sub 2}O as the breeding material. This first wall has an expected lifetime of more than six years. Further, up to 10 cm thickness can be tolerated before the tritium breeding ratio falls below unity. We are unaware of a suitable high temperature first wall material for a high-temperature'' option. This option would use a ceramic first wall and breed tritium in LiAlO{sub 2}, allowing all the reactor components to operate a high temperatures that allow efficient use of He as a coolant. Of the ceramics examined, SiC appears to be the best choice for considering both tritium breeding and wall lifetime. However, He production will limit that lifetime to five months, clearly not an economical lifetime. Further, Li{sub 2}O is necessary rather than LiAlO{sub 2} (at 7 cm wall thickness) to achieve a favorable tritium breeding ratio with SiC. Here, the benefits of using ceramics are lost as Li{sub 2}O has a much lower melting point than LiAlO{sub 2}. 12 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/DP
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5466924
• Report Number(s): UCRL-101113; CONF-891007-79; ON: DE90002790
• Resource Relation: Conference: 13. international symposium on fusion engineering, Knoxville, TN (USA), 2-6 Oct 1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
FIRST WALL
DAMAGING NEUTRON FLUENCE
ABLATION
BREEDING BLANKETS
DESIGN
ICF DEVICES
NEUTRON LEAKAGE
TRITIUM
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NEUTRON FLUENCE
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
REACTOR COMPONENTS
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
THERMONUCLEAR REACTOR WALLS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
700208* - Fusion Power Plant Technology- Inertial Confinement Technology