Re-analysis of HCPB/HCLL Blanket Mock-up Experiments Using Recent Nuclear
Data Libraries
K. Kondo,
1, *
U. Fischer,
1
A. Klix,
1
P. Pereslavtsev,
1
A. Serikov,
1
and R. Villari
2
1
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, 76344, Germany
2
ENEA C.R. Frascati, Via E. Fermi 45, I00044 Frascati, Italy
We have re-analysed the two breeding blankets experiments performed previously in the frame
of the European fusion program on two mock-ups of the European Helium-Cooled-Lithiium Lead
(HCLL) and Helium-Cooled-Pebble-Bed (HCPB) test blanket modules for ITER. The tritium pro-
duction rate and the neutron and photon spectra measured in these mock-ups were compared with
calculations using FENDL-3 Starter Library, release 4 and state-of-the-art nuclear data evaluations,
JEFF-3.1.2, JENDL-4.0 and ENDF/B-VII.0. The tritium production calculated for the HCPB
mock-up underestimates the experimental result by about 10%. The result calculated with FENDL-
3/SLIB4 gives slightly smaller tritium production by 2% than the one with FENDL-2.1. The differ-
ence attributes to the slight modification of the total and elastic scattering cross section of Be. For
the HCLL experiment, all libraries reproduce the experimental results well. FENDL-3/SLIB4 gives
better result both for the measured spectra and the tritium production compared to FENDL-2.1.
I. INTRODUCTION
For fusion reactor development, accurate and reliable
nuclear data are indispensable. In a future DEMO facil-
ity demonstrating power production by fusion, one of the
key issues is the prediction accuracy of tritium produced
in breeding blankets to attain tritium self-sufficiency. So
far many benchmark experiments have been conducted
using DT neutron sources all over the world in order to
verify the accuracy of nuclear data. Recently the authors
have performed re-analyses of a wide range of fusion rel-
evant benchmark experiments conducted previously with
14 MeV neutron generators at Frascati, ENEA (FNG),
the Technical University Dresden (TUD) and the Fusion
Neutron Source (FNS) of JAEA, Japan [1, 2]. In the
present paper our special focus is on two breeding blan-
kets experiments, which were performed in the frame of
the European fusion program on two mock-ups of the
European Helium-Cooled-Lithium Lead (HCLL) [3, 4]
and Helium-Cooled-Pebble-Bed (HCPB) [5, 6] test blan-
ket modules (TBMs) for ITER. The tritium production
rate as well as the neutron and photon spectra measured
in these mock-ups are compared with calculations using
the state-of-the-art nuclear data libraries JEFF-3.1.2 [7],
ENDF/B-VII.0 [8] and JENDL-4.0 [9]. These data li-
braries complement the Fusion Evaluated Nuclear Data
Library (FENDL) which has been developed under the
*
Corresponding author: keitaro.kondo@kit.edu
auspices of the IAEA/NDS to provide a qualified data
library for fusion applications. The version FENDL-2.1
[10], assembled in 2003, currently serves as the reference
data library for ITER nuclear design analyses. A ma-
jor update of this library has been provided with the
FENDL-3 project of the IAEA, resulting in the recent
starter library FENDL-3/SLIB, release 4 [11]. The pa-
per describes detailed results of the analyses performed
on those benchmark experiments. The comparison in-
cludes results obtained previously with the FENDL-2.1
data library and the new FENDL-3 compilation.
II. OVERVIEW OF THE ANALYZED
BENCHMARK EXPERIMENTS
A. Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) Breeder
Blanket Mock-up Experiment
The HCPB TBM breeder blanket mock-up used in the
benchmark experiment replicates all relevant features of
a breeder unit of the European HCPB-TBM. The front
box of the mock-up has the external dimension of 31.0
cm × 30.9 cm and 29.0 cm thickness and was filled with
metallic beryllium and contained two layers of 1.2 cm
thickness made of Li
2
CO
3
powder (with the natural
6
Li
abundance of 7.5%) simulating breeder materials. The
rear box with 14.8 cm thickness was filled with Li
2
CO
3
powder to simulate the rear breeder part of the original
breeder unit. The mock-up was irradiated at FNG and
the tritium production rates in the upper/lower breeder
cassettes were measured using Li
2
CO
3
pellet detectors
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Nuclear Data Sheets 120 (2014) 235–238
0090-3752/© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
www.elsevier.com/locate/nds
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2014.07.055