Experimental study on tritium breeding in water-cooled ceramic breeder blanket mock-up under D–T neutron irradiation conditions

Such an assessment can be conducted using the simulation approach with nuclear data of high-fidelity and, most importantly, validated against experimental data. In this paper, we report neutronics experiment studies carried out on a mock-up of the water-cooled ceramic breeder blanket of the China fusion engineering test reactor (CFETR), irradiated at a deuterium–tritium (D–T) neutron source.

The mock-up’s nuclear responses to 14 MeV neutrons, including tritium production rates (TPR) and neutron-induced reaction rates, are simulated and validated by experimental results. Redundant measurement techniques are used, including Li2TiO3 pellets for offline TPR measurements and the developed lithium glass detector with a significantly reduced size for online TPR measurements. The validation of the TPR value is complemented by the experimental evaluation of the neutron-induced reaction rates for Au and Zr foils.