Aqueous Slurries as Tritium Breeding Blankets for D-T Fusion Reactors

Fusion reactor blankets based on an aqueous slurry concept are proposed and examined. Attractive features and disadvantages of aqueous slurries as blankets are reviewed. Calculations to determine the capacity of slurry particles with different diameters to stop recoiling tritons are described. Neutronic calculations are performed to specify slurry blankets that are composed of LiF spherical particles suspended in both light and heavy water. Zircaloy and stainless steel are studied as vacuum wall and structure materials for the slurry designs. It is determined that aqueous slurry blankets are probably capable of breeding tritium (based only on the tritium produced and retained in the solid particles) and are worthy of additional study.