Computer Aided Design of Operational Units for Tritium Recovery from Li₁₇Pb₈₃ Blanket of a Demo Fusion Reactor

The problem of tritium recovery from Li₁₇Pb₈₃ blanket of a DEMO fusion reactor is analyzed with the objective of limiting tritium permeation into the cooling water to acceptable levels. To this aim, a mathematical model describing the tritium behaviour in blanket/recovery unit circuit has been formulated. By solving the model equations, tritium permeation rate into the cooling water and trituim inventory in the blanket are evaluated as a function of dimensionless parameters describing the combined effects of overall resistance for tritium transfer from Li₁₇Pb₈₃ alloy to cooling water, circulating rate of the molten alloy in blanket/recovery unit circuit and extraction efficiency of tritium recovery unit. The extraction efficiency is, in turn, evaluated as a function of the operating conditions of recovery unit. The design of tritium recovery unit is then optimized on the basis of the above parametric analysis and the results are herein reported and discussed for a tritium permeation limit of 10 g/day into the cooling water.