LBM program at the LOTUS facility

The Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne's (EPFL's) LOTUS facility in Lausanne, Switzerland, consists of a point-neutron deuterium-tritium (D-T) source in a shielded room designed specifically for neutronics experiments with fusion blanket modules. In 1985 the Electric Power Research Institute and EPFL initiated an experimental neutron transport program using irradiation of the Lithium Blanket Module (LBM) by the LOTUS neutron source. The principal objectives of this program are: (a) to test the capability of present-day neutron transport codes to predict the neutronic performance, including tritium breeding, of a reactor-representative blanket module in a relatively simple fast-neutron field and (b) to develop and verify the measurement and data processing procedures that will be used eventually with the LBM experiments at the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) at Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL).