6月13日 Overview of the design and R&D activities of the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed breeding blanket in Europe

　　题目：Overview of the design and R&D activities of the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed breeding blanket in Europe

　　时间：2023年6月13日星期二 9:00

　　地点：CRAFT园区206会议室

　　主持人：刘松林

　　报告人介绍：Dr. Guangming Zhou works as a scientist at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany since 2017. Since 2021, he is the Lead Engineer for the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) Breeding Blanket System within the European EUROfusion DEMO Breeding Blanket Project. He is leading a team of 25 PPY manpower across Europe with an annual budget of about 4.4 million euros for the development of HCPB Breeding Blanket across 9 European research organizations. He leads the design and R&D activities (Solid breeder development, neutron multiplier development, manufacturing technologies, prototypical mockup testing, helium cooling testing for high heat flux, tritium modelling, pebble bed modelling, thermal hydraulics system modelling of helium system) related to HCPB breeding blanket. His main tasks include task defining, planning, monitoring, coordinating, and team managing.

　　Guangming Zhou serves as International Expert for reviewing the grants related to fusion technology for the National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation of Kazakhstan. He also serves as reviewers for several internationally recognized academic journals: Fusion Engineering and Design, Fusion Science and Technology, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science and International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

　　Guangming Zhou obtained his PhD from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2016. He authored 38 SCI-indexed journal articles and received 568 citations based on Web of Science database.

　　报告内容：本报告将介绍欧洲DEMO 候选氦冷球床增殖包层的设计和R&D活动，具体内容：

　　At the conclusion of the Pre-Concept Design Phase (2014-2020) of the European DEMO program, a DEMO-wide gate review was conducted. External panels reviewed the design and R&D activities of the European DEMO Breeding Blanket Systems, along with other DEMO systems. It was discovered that there were several outstanding challenges that needed to be solved. One of the critical challenges was the low reliability of the blanket caused by too many welds that were prone to failure under DEMO operating conditions. The low reliability of the breeding blanket is the main reason for low availability of European DEMO, which is a critical challenge for fusion energy to be competitive. The Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) breeding blanket and Water Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) breeding blanket are the two driver blanket concepts for the European DEMO.

　　In the Concept Design Phase (2021-2027) of the European DEMO program, key issues should be addressed to reach a consolidated Concept Design of EU-DEMO. To tackle the low reliability issue of the breeding blanket, the HCPB Team proposed a new HCPB concept in 2021. This concept proposes to equalize the pressure of the purge gas with that of the coolant to eliminate welds that are designed for preventing in-box loss of coolant. However, the blanket box will have to bear the 8 MPa pressure even under normal conditions. Consequently, the thickness of the critical structures (especially the First Wall) of the HCPB will have to be increased, which will impact the tritium breeding ratio. To have a viable design, the basic nuclear, thermal hydraulic, and structural requirements must be met. Additionally, accompanying Research and Development (R&D) activities should be conducted to maturate the HCPB BB concept.

　　The design and R&D program of the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed breeding blanket will be discussed.