DEMO design using the SYCOMORE system code: Influence of technological constraints on the reactor performances

Cédric Reux (1) , Sébastien Kahn (1) , L. Zani (1) , Bernard Pégourié (1) , N. Piot (1) , Michal Owsiak (2) , Giacomo Aiello (3) , Jean-Francois Artaud (1) , Arthur Boutry (1) , Saied Dardour (3) , Luc Di Gallo (1) , Jean-Luc Duchateau (1) , Davide Galassi (1, 4) , Frédéric Imbeaux (1) , Jean-Charles Jaboulay (3) , Philippe Magaud (1) , J. Said (1) , Bernard Saoutic (1) , P. Sardain (1)

1 IRFM - Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique
2 PSNC - Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center
3 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)
4 M2P2 - Laboratoire de Mécanique, Modélisation et Procédés Propres

The next step for fusion energy after the ITER tokamak is the demonstration power plant DEMO. In this framework , system codes are used to address high-level key design issues for the DEMO pre-conceptual phase. They aim at capturing the interactions between the subsystems of a fusion reactor. SYCOMORE is a modular system code which includes physics and technology models coupled to an optimizer in order to explore a large design parameter space. In the present paper, trade-off studies focused on technology modules are reported including the influence of some design-driving assumptions on the reactor performances and size, starting from a European DEMO1-like design (more than 500 MW net electric power and 2 h burn duration). The increase of the mechanical stress limits in TF and CS magnets can help reducing the reactor size, slightly more when high temperature superconductors are used in the TF coil. The tritium breeding ratio can be improved to more than 1.10 by a moderate increase of the size, but the tritium burn-up ratio needs one additional meter of major radius for every percent increase. Divertor coolant options are also compared, showing some differences between helium, hot and cold water scenarios at various incident divertor heat fluxes.

Keywords: DEMO; System code; Fusion reactor; Breeding blankets; Superconducting magnets; Tritium; Power balance

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Chemical and Process Engineering

Cédric Reux, Sébastien Kahn, L. Zani, Bernard Pégourié, N. Piot, et al.. DEMO design using the SYCOMORE system code: Influence of technological constraints on the reactor performances. Fusion Engineering and Design, 2018, 136, pp.1572-1576. ⟨10.1016/j.fusengdes.2018.05.059⟩. ⟨hal-02115524⟩