A study on a high temperature gas-cooled reactor as a tritium production device for fusion reactors

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26420860
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Nuclear fusion studies
• Research Institution: Japan Atomic Energy Agency
• Principal Investigator: Goto Minoru 国立研究開発法人日本原子力研究開発機構, 原子力科学研究部門 高温ガス炉水素・熱利用研究センター, 研究主幹 (60414546)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Okumura Keisuke 国立研究開発法人日本原子力研究開発機構, 福島研究開発部門 福島研究開発拠点廃炉国際共同研究センター, グループリーダー (50391313) ; Nakagawa Shigeaki 国立研究開発法人日本原子力研究開発機構, 原子力科学研究部門 高温ガス炉水素・熱利用研究センター, 研究主幹 (40414544) ; Matsuura Hideaki 九州大学, 工学研究院, 准教授 (50238961)
• Research Collaborator: Shimazaki Yosuke
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 高温ガス炉 / 核融合炉 / トリチウム / リチウム / 核熱成立性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) is proposed as a tritium production device, which has the potential to produce a large amount of tritium using 6Li(n,a)T reaction. In the HTGR design, generally, boron is loaded into the core as a burnable poison to suppress excess reactivity. In this study, lithium is loaded into the HTGR core instead of boron and is used as a burnable poison aiming to produce thermal energy and tritium simultaneously. The nuclear characteristics and the fuel temperature were calculated to confirm the feasibility of the lithium-loaded HTGR. It was shown that the calculation results satisfied the design requirements and hence the nuclear and thermal feasibility was confirmed for the lithium-loaded HTGR, which produce thermal energy and tritium.

Free Research Field

炉物理