LOTUS blanket experimental program

This triennial report presents the summary of our research activities for the period January 1, 1987 to December 31, 1989. Experimental studies of fusion and hybrid blankets form the main objective of the LOTUS facility. Therefore, the broad areas of research included study of various types of new blanket assemblies, development of experimental techniques for tritium and in-situ neutronic spectra measurements and application of neutron transport theory and Monte Carlo codes for the analysis of experiments. In the field of blanket studies, the following items could be mentioned: - extension and completion of work on the Lotus Blanket Assembly (LBA) as well as on the Lithium Blanket Module (LBM), partly described in the 1984-86 triennial report, - extensive measurements of neutron multiplication in beryllium and lead on the basis of (n,2n)-index of multiplier method, developped at the IGA, - design and construction of a novel Experimental Lithium-Lead Module (EL2M) on which neutronics studies of two main fusion blanket assemblies were performed, -U-233 breeding measurements on a Thorium Oxide Blanket Module (TOBM). The reader will find four publications related to the abovementionned studies in Appendices A to D. The LOTUS facility, together with the FNS (Fusion Neutron Source) of the JAERI were used in a study on international comparison on tritium measurement techniques. The results reported by the participants revealed discrepancies rather widely beyond expectations. Further investigations on the matter are still going on. Efforts in the development of experimental techniques were directed towards a small-size deuteron-recoil spectrometer NE-230 for in-situ spectra measurements. (author) figs., tabs., refs