Engineering description of a solid first wall blanket based on advanced ferritic steel and re-circulating Flibe

A solid wall blanket utilizing advanced ferritic steel and re-circulating Flibe has been scoped out under the Advanced Power Extraction (APEX) program. This paper describes the engineering aspects of the design. The new alloy is the nano-composited ferritic (NCF) steel 12YWT and the breeding/cooling material is Flibe (Li/sub 2/BeF/sub 4/). The blanket has a solid first wall, but has an innovative coolant scheme, which allows part of the cooling fluid to be re-circulated to enhance the outlet temperature and thus improve the power cycle efficiency. Another innovation is the use of Pb as a neutron multiplier. The coolant outlet temperature is 681/spl deg/C allowing a conversion efficiency of 47%. Material issues, structural analysis, fabrication aspects and coolant circuits are covered.