Conceptual design of a subcritical research reactor for inertial fusion energy with the J-EPoCH facility

• Published in: High energy density physics Vol. 36; p. 100842
• Main Authors: Iwamoto, Akifumi, Kodama, Ryosuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.08.2020
• Subjects: Fusion engineering research; Fusion power demonstration; High repetition laser; Laser fusion subcritical research reactor; Replaceable cores; Tritium breeding; Laser fusion subcritical research reactor; High repetition laser; Tritium breeding; Fusion power demonstration; Fusion engineering research; Replaceable cores
• ISSN: 1574-1818; 1878-0563
• DOI: 10.1016/j.hedp.2020.100842

The Japan Establishment for a Power-laser Community Harvest (J-EPoCH) is proposed as a next generation laser facility having multi-purpose high repetition laser beams at the maximum rate of 100 Hz. One of the experimental areas is assigned for laser fusion research. The omnidirectional 12 laser beams with 8 kJ and a 5 PW heating laser are arranged. A Large High Aspect Ratio Target (LHART) with the laser beams would yield ~1013 neutrons. The fusion energy corresponds to ~22 J/shot. As one of the J-EPoCH applications, a laser fusion subcritical research reactor with replaceable cores has been conceptually designed based on existing technologies. Moreover,we can conduct a variety of fusion engineering studies: energy conversion, tritium breeding, neutron irradiation effects and other subjects. The feasibility of tritium breeding and preliminary energy conversion studies are proven according to calculations by the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS).