Design and analysis of mock-up of CFETR water cooled ceramic blanket for neutronics experiment

Highlights: • A mock-up for neutronics experiment was designed based on the water cooled ceramic blanket of CFETR under 200 MW. • The neutronics parameters of five mock-ups with the same radial design and different toroidal and poloidal cross sections were compared to select the smallest mock-up which can balance the neutronics performance and experimental cost. • The activation analysis was conducted for the designed mock-up. -- Abstract: The water cooled ceramic breeder (WCCB) blanket is one of the blanket candidates for China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). The neutronics experiment of the WCCB blanket is to validate the neutron transport codes and nuclear data libraries. A scaled down mock-up of the WCCB blanket should be designed considering constraints of economic costs and experimental conditions before the neutronics experiment. In this work, the mock-up was designed keeping neutronics and geometric characteristics of the original equatorial outboard blanket module of CFETR. The radial arrangement of the mock-up was designed firstly, including tungsten armor, first wall, breeding zone 1, beryllium layer 1, cooling plate 1, breeding zone 2, beryllium layer 2, cooling plate 2. Then the toroidal and poloidal dimensions of mock-up were optimized. Five mock-ups with the same radial arrangement and different toroidal and poloidal dimensions were selected as initial mock-ups. The nuclear response of these five mock-ups, including neutron intensity, neutron spectra and tritium production rate were analyzed. After the optimization, the size of the experimental mock-up was determined as 20.00 cm (Toroidal) × 20.00 cm (Poloidal) × 17.27 cm (Radial). The analyzed results showed that the neutronics performance of the mock-up were similar with the real blanket module and it can be employed to carry out neutronics experiments.