Neutronics analysis of inboard shielding capability for a DEMO fusion reactor CFETR

The inboard shielding of a fusion reactor can be a crucial issue due to the limited space available in a tokamak configuration. It is necessary to assess the inboard shielding capability of DEMO for its initial design. In this paper, 1D and 3D neutronics models were developed based on a reference design of the Chinese Fusion Engineering Testing Reactor (CFETR). The neutron wall load (NWL) is in the range of 1.5–3 MW/m2 and the inboard shielding thickness is constrained within 40–70 cm in order to achieve the tritium self-sufficiency of the reactor. Referring to the detailed design of the ITER Toroidal Field Coils (TFCs) and using radiation hardening technology developed for ITER, the inboard blanket shielding capability and nuclear responses of the TFC are investigated for both FLiBe and Li4SiO4 breeding blanket concepts. The impact of the gaps on shielding performance is discussed. Some suggestions on improving the inboard shielding performance for DEMO are also proposed.