DEMO WCLL breeding zone cooling system design: Analysis and discussion

The Water-Cooled Lithium-Lead (WCLL) Breeding Blanket (BB) is a key component in charge of ensuring Tritium self-sufficiency, shielding the Vacuum Vessel and removing the generated power of DEMO reactor. The last function is fulfilled by two independent cooling systems: First Wall (FW) that removes the plasma heat flux and Breeding Zone (BZ) that removes the deposited power of charged particle and neutron. Several layouts of BZ coolant system have been investigated in order to identify a configuration that guarantee Eurofer temperature below the limit (823 K) and good thermal-hydraulic performances (i.e. water outlet temperature 601 K). A research activity is conducted to study and compare four configurations, which rely on different arrangement of the stiffening plates (i.e. toroidal-poloidal and radial-poloidal), orientation of the cooling pipes (i.e. horizontal, vertical) and PbLi flow path. The analysis is performed using a CFD codes, thus a 3D finite volume model of each configuration is developed, adopting the commercial ANSYS CFX code. The objective is to compare the BZ cooling system layouts, identifying and discussing advantages and key issues from the thermal-hydraulic point of view, also considering feedbacks from MHD and neutronic analyses. The research activity aims at laying the groundwork for the finalization of the WCLL blanket design, pointing out relevant thermal-hydraulic aspects.