Required Momentum, Heat, and Mass Transport Experiments for Liquid Metal Blankets

The lack of experimental data for liquid metal blankets in the fusion environment restricts our ability to develop designs with demonstrated feasibility and adequately characterized performance. In order to confidently predict neutronic and thermal hydraulic performance of blankets, a variety of experiments will be needed. Ultimately, verification of all nuclear components will require testing in a fusion environment. However, a great deal of information can be obtained prior to fusion testing using non-neutron facilities to explore separate, multiple, and partially integrated effects. A large class of issues which can be effectively studied in a non-neutron environment are those impacted by MHD transport phenomena. A coordinated test program is described below to treat momentum, heat, and mass transport issues for liquid metal blankets.