Tritium breeding experiments in a fusion blanket assembly using a low-intensity neutron generator

Abstract

Experiments have been carried out to determine the accuracy with which tritium production rates (TPRs) can be measured in a fusion blanket assembly of non-spherical geometry by a non-central low intensity D-T neutron source. The tritium production was determined for samples of lithium carbonate containing high enrichments of 6 Li(96%) and 7 Li(99.9%). The measured data were used to check the accuracy with which the TPRs could be numerically predicted using current nuclear data and calculational methods. The numerical predictions from tritium production from the 7 Li samples agreed within the experimental errors of the measurements but 6 Li measurements which differ by more than 20 per cent from the predicted values which were observed in the lower half of the assembly.