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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
Mahmoud Z. Youssef
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 44 | Number 2 | September 2003 | Pages 327-332
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Chamber Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A355
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Due to its low vapor pressure, the Sn-Li eutectic has been identified as a potential breeder for deployment in the liquid first wall (FW)/Blanket concepts under investigation in the APEX study for high power density fusion reactors. However, its breeding capability is limited. This drawback is rather improved due to the neutron multiplication via Sn(n,2n) reactions. However, the "local" tritium breeding ratio (TBR) was found to be still on the marginal side (even with 90%Li-6 enrichment). Aside from using a beryllium multiplier, other means to improve the capability of Sn-Li for breeding are explored. In this paper, we show that by isotopic tailoring of Tin in the Sn-Li breeder, one can achieve substantial improvement in TBR in addition to attaining significant reduction in the activation level in this material.