Activation characteristics of candidate structural materials for a near-term Indian fusion reactor and the impact of their impurities on design considerations

Activation analyses play a vital role in nuclear reactor design.Activation analyses,along with nuclear analyses,provide important information for nuclear safety and maintenance strategies.Activation analyses also help in the selection of materials for a nuclear reactor,by providing the radioactivity and dose rate levels after irradiation.This information is important to help define maintenance activity for different parts of the reactor,and to plan decommissioning and radioactive waste disposal strategies.The study of activation analyses of candidate structural materials for near-term fusion reactors or ITER is equally essential,due to the presence of a highenergy neutron environment which makes decisive demands on material selection.This study comprises two parts; in the first part the activation characteristics,in a fusion radiation environment,of several elements which are widely present in structural materials,are studied.It reveals that the presence of a few specific elements in a material can diminish its feasibility for use in the nuclear environment.The second part of the study concentrates on activation analyses of candidate structural materials for near-term fusion reactors and their comparison in fusion radiation conditions.The structural materials selected for this study,i.e.India-specific Reduced Activation Ferritic-Martensitic steel（IN-RAFMS）,P91-grade steel,stainless steel 316 LN ITER-grade（SS-316 LN-IG）,stainless steel 316 L and stainless steel 304,are candidates for use in ITER either in vessel components or test blanket systems.Tungsten is also included in this study because of its use for ITER plasma-facing components.The study is carried out using the reference parameters of the ITER fusion reactor.The activation characteristics of the materials are assessed considering the irradiation at an ITER equatorial port.The presence of elements like Nb,Mo,Co and Ta in a structural material enhance the activity level as well as the dose level,which has an impact on design considerations.IN-RAFMS was shown to be a more effective low-activation material than SS-316 LN-IG.

Minimizing carbon deposition in plasma-induced methane coupling with structured hydrogenation catalysts

The effect of temperature and hydrogen addition on undesired carbonaceous deposit formation during methane coupling was studied in DBD-plasma catalytic-wall reactors with Pd/Al2 O3, using electrical power to drive the reaction.Experiments with thin catalyst layers allowed comparison of the performance of empty reactors and catalytic wall reactors without significantly influencing the plasma properties.The product distribution varies strongly in the temperature window between 25 and 200℃Minimal formation of deposits is found at an optimal temperature around 75℃ in the catalytic-wall reactors.The selectivity to deposits was c.a.10% with only 9 mg of catalyst loading instead of 45% in the blank reactor,while decreasing methane conversion only mildly.Co-feeding H2 to an empty reactor causes a similar decrease in selectivity to deposits,but in this case methane conversion also decreased significantly.Suppression of deposits formation in the catalytic-wall reactor at 75℃ is due to catalytic hydrogenation of mainly acetylene to ethylene.In the empty reactor,H2 co-feed decreases conversion but does not change the product distribution.The catalytic-wall reactors can be regenerated with H2-plasma at room temperature,which produces more added-value hydrocarbons.

A structured packed-bed reactor designed for exothermic hydrogenation of acetone

Fixed-bed reactors randomly packed with catalysts have many disadvantages that may adversely affect the desired chemical reaction.The increasingly used monolithic reactor,in contrast,has many operational advantages;however,for a kinetically-controlled reaction,it does not contain sufficient catalyst to sustain the reaction.To address the problems associated with both randomly packed-bed reactor and the monolithic reactor,a structured packed-bed reactor was proposed and mathematical models were built for randomly packed-bed reactor and structured packed-bed reactor.Their respective performances were compared when applied to the exothermic reaction of the isopropanol-acetone-hydrogen chemical heat pump system.The results showed that the structured packed-bed reactor performed better in terms of pressure drop and heat transfer capacity,and had a lower radial temperature gradient,indicating that this reactor had a higher effective heat conductivity.Isopropanol on the catalyst particle surfaces was more concentrated near the tube wall because a wall effect existed in the boundary layer around the particle-wall contact points.

Electromagnetic–thermal–structural coupling analysis of the ITER edge localized mode coil with flexible supports

In a fusion reactor, the edge localized mode（ELM） coil has a mitigating effect on the ELMs of the plasma. The coil is placed close to the plasma between the vacuum vessel and the blanket to reduce its design power and improve its mitigating ability. The coil works in a high-temperature,high-nuclear-heat and high-magnetic-field environment. Due to the existence of outer superconducting coils, the coil is subjected to an alternating electromagnetic force induced by its own alternating current and the outer magnetic field. The design goal for the ELM coil is to maintain its structural integrity in the multi-physical field. Taking as an example the middle ELM coil（with flexible supports） of ITER（the International Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor）, an electromagnetic–thermal–structural coupling analysis is carried out using ANSYS. The results show that the flexible supports help the three-layer casing meet the static and fatigue design requirements. The structural design of the middle ELM coil is reasonable and feasible. The work described in this paper provides the theoretical basis and method for ELM coil design.