Attendees: L. Bromberg, F. Dahlgren, B. Dove, L. El-Guebaly, S. Jardin, H. Khater, T. K. Mau, R. Miller, F. Najmabadi, W. Reiersen, R. Stambaugh, D. K. Sze, M. Tillack, L. Waganer, X. Wang, C. Wong
Guests: C. Baker, I. Cook, P. Karditsas, S. Malang, S. Nishio, A. Sagara, Y. Seki, S. Ueda
Attachments: Action Item Summary, Meeting agenda
No insulator was used between the conductors. It was recommended that an insulator be added between the center post conductors to reduce EM forces and deflections. [Dahlgren/El-Guebaly - Select insulator material and modify the design to incorporate insulators.] The analysis results illustrated several thicknesses of shield but when the shield thickness was reduced, the CP was not correspondingly increased. [Dahlgren - Update code to increase CP radius when shield is thinned.]
F. Dahlgren showed an alternate CP design approach using copper wedges with varying size coolant passages. This design would likely have an open center hole. The wedges were tapered on the upper and lower ends to match the plasma inboard contour. [Dahlgren - Develop and analyze the proposed wedge design.]
IBC Center Post Design Results - Wayne Reiersen reported his and Don Steiner's results on a comparison of an IBC and a H2O-Cu CP design at varying aspect ratios. The results indicated that the IBC must have a larger aspect ratio to be feasible. It was also noted that the H2O-Cu CP improved at the larger aspect ratio. Wayne felt the basic IBC CP design would not be competitive with the Cu design, but he and Don intend to develop a hybrid CP design using Cu as the current conductor with a lithium coolant.
Leslie Bromberg stressed the need to have a CP structure which reacts the out-of- plane loads. Incorporating insulators would help reduce such loads. He also said he had tested a short sample of a 30K conductor which could be used as the center post conductor. Laila El-Guebaly recommended a 1-meter-thick shield for this high- temperature superconductor. Another possibility was the Neil Taylor approach of a liquid-helium cooled, high purity aluminum CP at 30K. [Reiersen, Bromberg, Dahlgren, Wang, El-Guebaly, Sze - Develop CP designs for four approaches; (1) H2O-Cu, (2) Li-Cu, (3) LHe-Al, and (4) LHe-S/C. Design should include CP, shield, and outer TF legs plus electrical and coolant routing scheme through CP, TF coils, divertor, and blankets.]
Center Post Shielding and Blanket Neutronics - Laila El-Guebaly reviewed the key parameters and design limits principally for the CP conductor and shielding. She presented the results for a range of shield thicknesses. [El-Guebaly - Recommend shield composition and thickness for each CP configuration noted above to meet waste disposal, resistivity, and lifetime requirements. Fixed values are desired, but economic considerations may require parametric solutions.]
Experimental data showed that copper alloys rapidly embrittle at only 0.1 dpa; hence, the design team needs guidance for all copper alloy structural designs (DP, divertor, coolant passages). [Blanchard - Provide design guidelines for brittle materials, especially Cu, SiC, and ceramic materials such as insulators]. If copper operates above 180 C, it may prevent swelling.
The proposed lithium titanate solid breeder is similar to lithium zirconate but has a lower level of activation. Like other solid breeders, it needs a neutron multiplier such as beryllium to achieve tritium self-sufficiency. Use of beryllium results in an expensive blanket. As a preliminary analysis assumption, Laila chose a 1-cm-thick steel kink shell. [Jardin - Determine if the 1-cm-thick kink shell is adequate.]
Design and Analysis of Helium-Cooled High Heat Flux (HHF) Components - Xueren Wang proposed use of a helium-cooled divertor in the ARIES-ST reactor. A water-cooled system would pose a safety hazard in proximity to a lithium-cooled blanket. But he had difficulty reaching the necessary level of 5-6 MW/m2 surface heat load requirement with a 8 MPa helium coolant and high coolant outlet temerature. [Wang - Check the stress level at the 8 MPa level and increase the pressure if possible.]
TF Coil Bus Bar Design Implications - Leslie Bromberg noted the size of the copper bus bars necessary to handle the 30 MA of current. Not only was the size and capital cost excessive, the power losses in the leads contributed to a sizable operating cost. He suggested the use of the 30K superconductor for TF coil bus bars. [Bromberg - Develop a conceptual design and sketches of a 30K S/C bus bar and power supply system. Compare to a normal Cu design.]
Safety Analysis Results for LAR Tokamaks - Hesham Khater used a composition of F82H ferritic steel which contained 20 wppm of silver. The high content of silver does not allow the FW and shield to qualify as LLW according to Fetter limits. The Fetter limits can be met if the new composition of F82H ferritic steel which contains less than 1 wppm of silver is used. However, the new composition needs to be isotopically tailored to significantly reduce the Nb trace element. The silver content of CP copper needs to be reduced by an order of magnitude to allow for its disposal as LLW according to Fetter limits. The CP has about 6 FPY lifetime to meet the 10CFR61 NCR limits.
H. Khater presented a simple LOCA analysis performed by El-Sayed Mogahed. The simple model did not include conduction along and out of the end of the CP. He had used a shield, but it was suggested that he run a case without a shield to determine if an unshielded Cu CP was a safety hazard. [Mogahed - Rerun LOCA analysis of the Cu CP without a shield.] Khater used the temperature profiles obtained from the simple LOCA analysis to calculate off-site doses caused by radioactive material mobilization. The off-site doses are less than the 10 mSv required to avoid evacuation in case of an accident. The large amount of Be used in the current design present a serious safety hazard. The issue of hydrogen combustion and over pressurization poses a serious threat to obtaining the desired level of radioactivity confinement.
Discussion of LAR Blanket Issues - Dai-Kai Sze reviewed the blanket materials and coolant choices along with significant issues and performance limits. One common assupmtion is that the thermal conversion must be high efficiency (implying high temperature) to compensate for the large recirculating power fraction inherent with the LAR device. With this high temperature requirement and the use of Be, the solid breeder cannot handle more than 1-2 MW/m2 due to the limiting capability of heat transfer in the solid breeder. The lithium-vanadium system is limited to a surface heat flux of 1 MW/m2 due to the long coolant path on the ST first wall. [Sze - Examine a helium-cooled first wall with the lithium-cooled blanket.]
Siegfried Malang suggested we push the assumption that lithium and water should not be used together in the power core. Instead, we can offer several barriers that would offer in-depth protection against a single accident scenario. [Sze - Work with Malang to develop a water-cooled CP and Li-cooled blanket design approach with several layers of protective barriers.]
Highlights of the Innovative Concept Workshop - Steve Jardin attended the Innovative Concepts Workshop in Los Angeles earlier this week. He noted that new grant money ($3M) is available to help develop some of these concepts. Some of the concepts were old, others were new and innovative. Others are just curiosities.
Highlights of the US/Japan High Power Density Components and Devices Workshop - Clement Wong presented the key results from the workshop held two weeks ago, by showing the impact of high average plasma power density on the blanket and divertor designs. The GA-LAR design was shown with the following parameters; He/stagnant-Li/V-alloy blanket design with R = 1.45 m, A = 1.75 m, A=1.4, k = 2.5, and an average NWL of 8 MW/m2. This 1490 MWe machine was estimated to have a COE of 57.65 mill/kWh with a thermal efficiency of 46%.
Specific observations from the workshop were: for experimental devices like ITER, LHD, NSTX, and LAR-VNS with no power conversion, a very high divertor surface loading (such as 30 MW/m2) may be handled by sub-cooled,boiling water flow. For power plant designs, like ARIES-RS and GA-LAR, is is desirable to minimize the volume of the fusion power core by raising the average neutron wall loading to the range of 4 to 8 MW/m2. But due to the need for efficient power conversion and reasonably high coolant outlet temperature, the acceptable divertor surface loading may be limited to 5-6 MW/m2.
Scope and Preliminary Results of Alternate Applications Study - Les Waganer explained that the name ÒAlternate ApplicationsÓ may have to be changed to ÒNon-Electric ApplicationsÓ to eliminate confusion with Alternate (confinement) ConceptsÓ. He presented the study purpose and the general study plan. The positive and negative attributes of fusion were shown. These will be generalized to apply to all applications considered. He then showed a list of products that can be obtained from fusion reactions. A few detailed examples of classes of applications were presented to illustrate the depth of the product descriptions planned. The study groupÕs next action is to compile the product descriptions and develop an attribute list that encompasses all products such that the attributes for each application may be quantified. It was recommended that breeding fissile fuels be cataloged and described, but not developed.
GA Physics Results - Ron Stambaugh reported higher elongation is possible at lower aspect ratios and broader current profiles. He feels high bN is the key to high bT (fusion power) and high bP (bootstrap fraction). He does not see a motivation to reduce the aspect ratio below 1.4. He still shows the relationship of bN = 12/A but the postulated the general plasma performance over a range of scaling of the general form, bN = 12/Ax for x = 0 to 2.0. He proposed that the best equilibrium case was at A = 1.4 which had very similar data to those of Jardin.
He proposed the group investigate a pilot plant option, but this suggestion was rejected as the charter is for a commercial power plant. He also suggested overdriving the bootstrap current to establish the plasma current. [Mau - Evaluate a bootstrap overdrive option for startup.]
Startup and Current Drive Systems for ST Power Plants - T.K. Mau reported new analysis results that would suggest a factor of 5 to 10 improvement in edge drive current drive system efficiency. Hence, off axis CD is now possible. He would like to use High Harmonic Fast Wave (HHFW) as the current profile control technique. He would suggest some off-axis and edge SOL CD to optimize the beta limit. He would also use the core auxiliary heating system for low beta startup.
Physics Plans for the Near Future - Steve Jardin summarized the following general investigation areas:
Engineering Plans for the Near Future - M. Tillack reviewed the ARIES-ST schedule to highlight development of design options during the next few months, with concept selection for the baseline design at the next meeting. L.ÊWaganer stressed that we must have enough definition (including design sketches) so that informed decisions can be made at that time. Mark summarized the blanket, centerpost, and divertor material and coolant options to be evaluated (see action items). Mark also suggested that the helium-cooled divertor include Cu, V, and SS structural options as well as a liquid metal variant with both closed-channel and free-surface flow. [Wang - Assess expanded He-cooled and liquid metal-cooled divertor options.]
Wednesday, 5 March 1997
8:30 Coffee and Socializing
ENGINEERING SESSION (Chair: Prof. Kiyoshi Yoshikawa)
9:00 Overview of ARIES-RS Neutronics and Radiation Shielding
Dr. Laila El-Guebaly (UW)
9:45 Comparison of Radioactive Waste Disposal of a Fission and Fusion Reactors
Dr. Yasushi Seki (JAERI)
10:30 Break
10:45 The Configuration and Maintenance of the ARIES-RS Power Plant
Mr. Les Waganer (MDA)
11:30 Engineering Design and Materials Consideration of the DREAM Reactor
Dr. Shuzo Ueda (JAERI)
12:15 Lunch
LOW-ASPECT-RATIO SPHERICAL TOKAMAK (Chair: Dr. Mark Tillack)
2:00 New Ideas for Spherical Tokamak Power Station Design
Dr. Neill Taylor (UKAEA)
2:45 Present Status of Structural Material Development at Japanese
Univertities and NIFS - Prof. Yiutai Katoh (Khoto University)
3:30 Break
3:45 ARIES-ST Blanket Design
Dr. Dai Kai Sze (ANL)
4:30 ARIES-ST Systems
Dr. Ronald Miller (UCSD)
5:15 Close-out of Japan/US Workshop
[Dinner: by arrangement]
ARIES Project Meeting
Room 479, Engineering Bldg., Unit 2
University of California, San Diego
Thursday, 6 March 1997
8:00 Coffee and Socializing UCSD Hosts
Administrative
8:30 Discussion of Agenda Waganer
8:35 Programmatic Overview Dove/Najmabadi
Spherical Tokamak Engineering Session
8:50 Short Summary of Engr Talks in Joint Session Tillack
9:10 Centerpost Design and Analysis Dahlgren
9:40 Centerpost Discussion Team
9:50 IBC Centerpost Study Results Reiersen
10:20 Break
10:30 Centerpost Shielding and Blanket Neutronics El-Guebaly
11:00 Design and Analysis of Helium Cooling of HHF Components Wang
11:30 Tritium Issues in Liquid Metal Divertor Designs (not presented) Sze
Buss Bar Design Assessment (added) Bromberg
12:00 Safety Analysis Results for LAR Tokamaks Khater
12:30 Lunch to 1:30
1:30 Engr Summary/Direction for Next Six Months (delayed to Fri. am) Tillack
General
2:00 ARIES-ST Systems Issues & LAR Comparison Study Results Miller
2:30 Highlights of the Innovative Concept Workshop Jardin
3:00 Break
Alternate Applications Session
3:15 Alternate Applications - Scope and Preliminary Results Waganer
General
4:00 Summary of the US/Japan High Power Workshop Wong
4:30 Discussion of LAR Blanket Engineering Issues Sze, et al
5:30 Adjourn for Dinner
ARIES Project Meeting
Room 479, Engineering Bldg., Unit 2
University of California, San Diego
Friday, 7 March 1997
8:00 Coffee and Socializing UCSD Hosts Spherical Tokamak Physics Session 8:30 Results of High-Elongation, Low-Aspect Ratio Stability Studies Jardin 9:00 GA Physics Study Results Stambaugh 9:30 Startup and Current Drive for ST Power Plants T.K.Mau 10:00 Discussion Period 10:15 Break 10:30 Physics Summary and Direction for Next Six Months Jardin 11:00 Action Items, Plans, Report Status Najmabadi 11:30 ADJOURN