Thermal Hydraulic Safety Assessment of LLCB Test Blanket System in ITER Using Modified relap/scdapsim/mod4.0 Code

Abstract

This work attempts to investigate the thermal hydraulic safety of lithium lead ceramic breeder (LLCB) test blanket system (TBS) in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) with the help of modified thermal hydraulic code relap/scdapsim/mod4.0. The design basis accidents, in-vessel and ex-vessel loss of coolant of first wall (FW) of test blanket module (TBM) are analyzed for this safety assessment. The sequence of accidents analyzed was started with postulated initiating events (PIEs). A detailed modeling of first wall helium cooling system (FWHCS) loop and lithium lead cooling system (LLCS) is presented. The analysis of steady-state normal operation along with 10 s power excursion before the accident is also discussed in order to better understanding of initial condition of accidents. The analysis discusses a number of safety concerns and issues that may result from the TBM component failure, such as vacuum vessel (VV) pressurization, TBM FW temperature profile, passive decay heat removal capability of TBM structure, pressurization of port cell and Tokomak cooling water system vault annex (TCWS-VA) and to check the capability of passive safety system (vacuum vessel pressure suppression system (VVPSS)). The analysis shows that in these accident scenarios, the critical parameters have reasonable safety margins.