Thermal-hydraulic study of the ESPRESSO blanket for a tandem mirror reactor

This paper deals primarily with the thermal-hydraulic design and some critical thermomechanical aspects of the proposed ESPRESSO blanket for the tandem mirror fusion reactor. This conceptual design was based on the same physics used in the MARS study. A computer code was developed to perform self-consistent calculations of the geometry, first-wall stresses, and canister thermal-hydraulic parameters. The neutronic data used as input were obtained from three-dimensional Monte Carlo computations. The design code also includes a simple steam power plant model to calculate the steam cycle thermal efficiency and the electrical power produced, as well as a cost subroutine for estimating the central cell contribution to the cost of electricity. Two different breeder/neutron multiplier configurations were finally chosen for detailed study based on their attractive overall potential:natural lithium oxide with no multiplier (case I) and 30% enriched gamma-lithium aluminate with a beryllium multiplier (case IV)