Abstract
Current topics concerning blanket technology are reviewed. In the chemical engineering/chemistry area, the qualitative and quantitative effects of mass transfer steps of tritium is important in the understanding of the behavior of bred tritium in the solid breeder blanket system. Such phenomena as adsorption, isotope exchange reactions, and water formation reaction at the grain surface produce profound effects on the behavior of the bred tritium in the blanket. Regarding the liquid system, the physical or chemical properties of Li, Li17Pb83 and Flibe as liquid blanket materials were compared. Some recent studies were introduced regarding tritium recovery from the liquid blanket materials, impurity removal from salts, ceramic coating of structural materials, and the vapor pressure of mixtures of metals or salts. Thermal hydraulic topics in relation to several candidate power reactor concepts are summarized. Emphasis is laid on the simultaneous removal of heat and tritium from the blanket and some aspects of forming effective power cycles are developed.
