Design and preliminary analyses of the new Water Cooled Lithium Lead TBM for ITER

In the European strategy, DEMO is the intermediate step between ITER and a commercial fusion power plant. In this framework, one of the goal of DEMO is to be a Breeding Blanket test facility. The Breeding Blanket, which is not present in ITER, is one of the key components for the future deployment of nuclear fusion electricity as it accomplishes the functions of tritium breeding and nuclear to thermal power conversion. Due to time constraints lead by the construction schedule of DEMO, a new strategy to consider in DEMO a “driver” Breeding Blanket that needs limited technological extrapolation has been chosen, while “advanced” Breeding Blanket concepts will be tested in the next phases. In this context, ITER will allow to test technologies to provide relevant contributions in terms of Return of eXperience to the DEMO “driver” Breeding Blanket project by the mean of Test Blanket Modules (TBM) to be installed in different ITER Vacuum Vessel Ports. Among the possible “driver” Breeding Blanket, the Water Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) concept comes out. In this framework, a realignment of the DEMO Breeding Blanket and TBM programs has started in 2017, leading to a new TBM development relevant of the DEMO WCLL BB. The WCLL TBM is therefore an essential component in ITER that will provide crucial information for the development of the DEMO “driver” blanket. This paper aims at presenting the development process and design status of WCLL TBM. After recalling the main features of the WCLL TBM, conceptual design analyses are presented and discussed.