Possibilities for maximizing the tritium breeding ratio (TBR) and for minimizing the major radius of the Next European Torus (NET) fusion device are investigated using the nucleonic optimization code SWAN. It is found that a NET like device can be designed to be tritium self-sufficient even when tritium breeding is restricted to the outboard blanket, while enabling a 25 cm reduction in the major radius of the device, Additional 20 cm major radius reduction is expected from replacing the conventional steel-water inboard shield by an optimized shield based on a tungsten-copper composite material and titanium-hydride.