Predictions of heat and neutron loads onto FPP first walls in FUSE*

Computational modules have been implemented in the FUsion Synthesis Engine (FUSE) [1], General Atomics’ framework for reactor design, to evaluate heat and neutron loads onto the first wall (FW) of a Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP). Three modules have been developed and finalized which compute respectively: the neutron wall loading (NWL), the core radiative wall loading (CRWL) and the boundary plasma wall loading (PWL). NWL and CRWL are evaluated using a Monte Carlo scheme where particles (neutron and photons) are generated in the confined plasma with a spatial distribution proportional to the respective source profiles and tracked up to the FW. For the PWL, a heat flux mapper enforcing energy conservation has been implemented using the magnetic equilibrium and a parametrized radial profile of the parallel flux at the outer midplane, returning the power density in the whole magnetic volume. In the computation of the PWL, the radiation in the boundary plasma is currently ignored but will be included in future developments of the code. Integration of these modules in FUSE allows for a quick evaluation (< 10 s) of the NWL, the CRWL and the PWL for different FPP design(s). In such a way, the wall loading is derived in a self-consistent fashion with the core plasma solution which is computed using transport models (e.g. TGLF) or ML-surrogates (e.g. TGLF-NN). Results will be presented focusing on a 200 MW net electric FPP concept developed at General Atomics.

 

[1] O. Meneghini, et al., Proceedings of the IAEA FEC 2023 Conference, 2023.