Assessment of solid breeding blanker options for commercial tokamak reactors

This study examines the materials and design implications regarding the use of solid breeding materials with respect to compatibility with structure and coolant, tritium processing, chemical and radiation stability, and thermal-hydraulics. Four solid breeding materials considered, viz., Li7Pb2, Li2O, Li2SiO3, and LiAlO2, are representative of the metallic and ceramic compounds available. The major design problems regarding the use of solid breeding materials relate to the limited range of operating temperatures acceptable for tritium release and chemical stability or compatibility. The allowable ranges of breeder temperatures for which in-situ tritium recovery is potentially viable are evaluated for the candidate breeding materials