Neutronics Analysis of a Water-Cooled Blanket with a Be 12 Ti Reflector to Enhance Tritium Breeding
This paper presents a neutronics analysis of a water-cooled solid breeder (WCSB) blanket designed to improve the tritium breeding ratio (TBR) through the incorporation of a reflector. The reference model is based on the WCSB blanket of the Double-Null Korean Fusion Demonstration Reactor (DN K-DEMO). In the modified design, rib structures are introduced to ensure structural integrity under high-pressure water coolant conditions (15.5 MPa). Parametric studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of the Li2TiO3-to-Be12Ti ratio in the tritium breeding zone, the reflector thickness, and the cooling channel dimensions. The results demonstrate that the modified WCSB blanket, consisting of 14% Li2TiO3 in the breeding mixture, a 10-mm vertical reflector, and a 15-mm horizontal reflector, achieves a global TBR of 1.068, thereby satisfying the self-sufficiency requirement (TBR > 1.05).Neutronics simulations were performed using MCNP6 with the FENDL-3.1d and ENDF/B-VIII.0 libraries. Furthermore, thermal analysis using ANSYS CFX confirmed that all blanket materials remain within their allowable temperature limits.
Authors
- Sungjin Kwon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1669-5866)
- SeongHee Hong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9150-4516)
Institutions
- Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Fusion Science & Technology
- Published
- 2026-08-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2026.2713872
- Primary Topic
- Fusion materials and technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00