Studies on additional electrical heating of the HCLL TBM breeder zone

Abstract Among the test blanket modules (TBMs) to be tested in the successive ITER phases, European design activities have focused on the electromagnetic (EM) TBM to be tested in ITER first phase (H-H), and on the integral (IN) TBM to be tested in the full duty D-T phase. The scope of the present contribution is to report activities performed on the helium cooled lithium lead (HCLL) TBM, in its EM version for the H-H phase. This phase is characterized for the TBM by relevant D-T phase magnetic field, surface heat flux and disruption induced loads, and the lack of nuclear volumetric heating. On one hand, H-H phase gives the opportunity of experiments and use of instrumentation which will not be possible in the irradiated environment of D-T phase. On the other hand, H-H phase specificity is a temperature level in the breeder zone much lower than that in the D-T phase. Main EU objectives assigned to TBM testing in H-H phase for design validation and for the build-up of a reliability database can be fulfilled at this temperature level, which is not the case for the scientific experimental program (MHD, corrosion and tritium permeation). Hence, partial heating of the TBM is foreseen. A technical solution for an electrically heated configuration of the breeder zone has been investigated. Finite element (FE) analyses were performed to assess the thermal behaviour of the TBM for the non-heated and heated cases.