Neutronics Calculations for Gas-Suspended Boron Carbide Cooling D-D Fusion Reactor Blankets

Abstract

An examination is made of the dependence shown by the nuclear characteristics of a D-D fusion reactor blanket cooled by particles of boron carbide (B₄C) suspended in gas, on the design variations such as ¹⁰B enrichment in B₄C and the B₄C concentration in the coolant channel.
The results of calculation reveal that the flow of B₄C particles containing ¹⁰B with the natural abundance and loaded to the maximum attainable concentration is an optimal choice as coolant in terms of nuclear characteristics: the blanket cooled by the flow exhibits the maximum nuclear heating, the minimum neutron energy leakage and the minimum induced activity. The flow also would have the advantage of the lowest cost on account of no need of additional processing to enrich or deplete ¹⁰B.