Helium cooled Flibe blanket

The blanket design uses a pressure vessel to contain the 50 atmosphere helium gas. Helium cools the first wall and blanket internals. The internals consist of a bed of beryllium balls nominally 1 cm diameter in which neutrons are multiplied and later captured, breeding adequate (even excess) amounts of tritium and releasing energy in exothermic nuclear reactions. Tritium is bred in the molten flibe salt which flows slowly (0.1m/sec) in steel tubes. The salt is kept reducing by periodic reacting with beryllium so the tritium will be in the T2 form, however with somewhat enhanced corrosion rate the salt could be kept oxidizing in which case the tritium would be in the TF form. To prevent the tritium from permitting too much into the helium stream, a tungsten coating on the inside of the tubes is proposed. Tritium is removed from the salt and helium by processing both. Because the solubility of tritium in Flibe is so low, there will be a strong driving force for tritium permeation and this places a great burden on a high integrity tungsten permeation barrier. The tritium in the helium is prevented from permeating excessively into the steam system by jacketing the steel steam generator tubes with a 1 mm aluminum jacket. Clearly, tritium containment and barrier development are the most important feasibility issues for this design