Progress in engineering design of Indian LLCB TBM set for testing in ITER

Abstract The Indian Lead–Lithium Ceramic Breeder (LLCB) Test Blanket Module (TBM) is the Indian DEMO relevant blanket module, as a part of the TBM program in ITER. The LLCB TBM will be tested from the first phase of ITER operation in one-half of an ITER port no. 2. LLCB TBM-set consists of LLCB TBM module and shield block, which are attached with the help of attachment systems. This LLCB TBM set is inserted in a water-cooled stainless steel frame called ‘TBM frame’, which also provides the separation between the neighboring TBM-sets (Chinese TBM set) in port no. 2. In LLCB TBM, high-pressure helium gas is used to cool the first wall (FW) structure and lead–lithium eutectic (Pb–Li) flowing separately around the ceramic breeder (CB) pebble bed to cool the TBM internals which are heated due to the volumetric neutron heating during plasma operation. Low-pressure helium is purged inside the CB zones to extract the bred tritium. Thermal-structural analyses have been performed independently on LLCB TBM and shield block for TBM set using ANSYS. This paper will also describe the performance analysis of individual components of LLCB TBM set and their different configurations to optimize their performances.