Conceptual design of the water cooled ceramic breeder blanket for CFETR based on pressurized water cooled reactor technology

A candidate of blanket concept for phase-I (P_f = 200 MW, TBR ≥ 1.1) and phase-II (P_f = 1.2 GW, TBR ≥ 1.1) of the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) extends the well-established pressurized water reactor technology. This candidate, the water cooled ceramic breeder (WCCB) blanket, is being designed at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Accounting for the neutron wall loading on each module for both phases, module radial building is optimized for tritium breeding ratio under standard design rules. These include all material temperature limits allowing 500–875 °C in the breeder zone to promote tritium release. Each module has several mixed breeder zones separated by cooling and stiffening plates. A compact coolant manifold enlarges the breeder zone. Purge gas is directed in the toroidal direction to reduce its pressure drop. 3-D neutronics calculations of the blanket sector indicate TBRs of 1.21 for phase-I and 1.12 for phase-II. The thermal hydraulic analyses of each module indicate full compliance with the allowable material temperatures.