Process Safety and Environmental Protection, vol.190, pp.1536-1545, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
In this paper, the neutronic and hydrogen production performances of the advanced power extraction fusion reactor (APEX) have been investigated by using TRISO thorium fuel. With this study, TRISO-coated nuclear fuel was first used in the APEX fusion reactor. In this calculation, firstly, the neutronic performances for 10 % ThC + 90 % FLiBe and various 6Li enrichment ratios have been computed with MCNP. Secondly, the potential of hydrogen production of the hydrogen unit, which contains cobalt-chlorine cycle and copper-chlorine cycle, integrated with the advanced power extraction fusion reactor has been performed. The tritium breeding ratio has changed between 1.09 and 1.15 among 7.5 % and 90 % 6Li enrichment ratios for 10 % ThC + 90 % FliBe. The energy multiplication factors have been obtained as 1.2727 and 1.3209, respectively, among 7.5 % and 90 % 6Li enrichment ratios. The thermal power, its ratio, and the hydrogen production amount have been calculated depends on the energy multiplication factor for various 6Li enrichment ratios and each considered cycle. The results showed that hydrogen production quantity increases with a rising 6Li enrichment ratio for both cycles. The highest produced hydrogen amount was obtained as 12.74 kg/s via the Cu-Cl cycle, whereas hydrogen production with the Co-Cl cycle has been computed as 6.79 kg/s in the cases of 10 % ThC fuel ratio and 90 % 6Li enrichment ratio.