Year
2010
Abstract
Although ?ssile material is usually not considered when thinking of fusion reactors (except in fusion-?ssion hybrid concepts), they have a potential to breed nuclear weapon relevant material (Pu, Tritium) which should not be neglected. We developed a MCNPX model of the 2006 published concept A of the European Power Plant Conceptual Study to analyze the potential for Pu production in a fusion reactor. Production potentials are calculated for varying uranium content replacing the Pb-17Li alloy in different blankets of the reactor. The results show that signi?cant amounts of ?ssile material can be produced even with limited amounts of source material. The production in different zones will be limited by additional heating due to ?ssion and due to a reduced tritium breeding rate. Burnup calculations indicate that the produced plutonium is weapon usable with over 90% Pu-239 even for extremly high burnups. As the technology is and will be in development for the next decades, there is suf?cient time to implement and test applicable safeguard measures or develop proliferation resistant designs.