Calculational Methods for Nuclear Heating—Part II: Applications to Fusion-Reactor Blankets and Shields

Abstract

The calculational methods developed for nuclear heating in an earlier paper are applied to fusion-reactor blankets and shields. The study shows that the nuclear heating in fusion-reactor blankets has been previously overestimated and is limited to ≍16 MeV per DT neutron in the absence of beryllium or fissionable materials. Methods are also examined for increasing the energy multiplication in the blanket by maximizing the rates of exothermic reactions. A general study of the sensitivity of the neutron energy deposition to changes in basic nuclear data is carried out: this study shows the following: