Preliminary design of high temperature lithium-lead blanket with SiC cooling panel

A high temperature lithium-lead blanket, which can be made within a limited extrapolations of present technology, has been proposed. The blanket structure is based on F82H as vessel material, and Pb-17Li as breeder. SiCf/SiC cooling panel is inserted between them to achieve high temperature extraction of Pb-17Li while maintaining F82H under allowable temperature limit. Neutronic analysis using ANISN code has been conducted to assess tritium breeding capability, shielding performance, and nuclear power generation. Heat transfer for the Pb-17Li streams has been calculated considering MHD pressure loss to be acceptable. Temperature distribution in the F82H vessel and SiCf/SiC cooling panel has been calculated using ANSYS Version 10.0. The results show that the maximum temperature of the F82H does not exceed 550 °C with He flow velocity of 60 m/s. The thermal-hydraulic evaluations of heat transfer media based on the experimental data shows that the overall heat transfer coefficient between SiC and Pb-17Li in the blanket is estimated to 650-800 W/m2K.