Masters Theses

Abstract

"At the present state of engineering development, the most probable fusion reactor fuel cycle will use deuterium and tritium in the reaction 21D + 3 1T → 10n + 42He. This reaction is exothermic and provides 17.6 Mev of energy of which 14.1 Mev are given to the neutron. The reaction will take place in a plasma environment inside an evacuated chamber. This chamber will be surrounded by a "blanket" which will serve to transform the kinetic energy of the neutron into heat and produce tritium for subsequent use in the fuel cycle. To accomplish this, the blanket will contain materials to slow down and finally absorb the neutron and to produce tritium. The quantity of importance in the production of tritium is the tritium-breeding ratio which is defined as the ratio of tritium atoms produced, divided by tritium atoms consumed. The breeding ratio should be greater than one.

The present work presents calculations of the tritium-breeding ratio and heating rates for two proposed blanket designs. The MONTE CARLO method was used to obtain the results. The materials used for the blanket were vanadium and lithium. Lithium is used to slow down the neutrons and produce tritium by the 63Li(n,T) 4 He and 73Li(n,n’,T) 42 He reactions. Vanadium is used as the structural material in the blanket. Results obtained indicate that a tritium-breeding ratio of 1.3 is easily obtained by either design and that the heating rates for both designs are similar "--Abstract, page i.

Advisor(s)

Tsoulfanidis, Nicholas

Committee Member(s)

Dolan, Tom
Byers, James K.

Department(s)

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

Degree Name

M.S. in Nuclear Engineering

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Publication Date

1973

Pagination

vii, 78 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 59-61).

Rights

© 1973 James Edward Struve, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Fusion reactorsTritium

Thesis Number

T 2850

Print OCLC #

6028663

Electronic OCLC #

914270046

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