Neutronics Experiment on a Water Cooled Ceramic Breeder Blanket Mockup using D-T Neutrons

Accurate validation of the neutronics and tritium breeding performance in fusion blankets is critical to the realization of practical fusion energy output. Such validation can be achieved by integrating high-fidelity numerical simulations and experimental validation—the latter being of paramount importance. In this study, dedicated neutronic experiments was conducted using a 14 MeV D-T neutron source on a mockup of the Water Cooled Ceramic Breeder (WCCB) Blanket for the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). These experiments provided experimental validation for the calculated tritium production rate (TPR) and neutron spectral index for the WCCB blanket concept and an assessment of discrepancies across different nuclear data libraries. This paper presents a detailed description of the WCCB experiment, including measurements of the (TPR) and the activation rates of Al, In, and Nb have (used as neutron spectral indices), with associated uncertainties of 5.02% and 4.7~5.0%, respectively. The experiment data were analyzed via the MCNP code in conjunction with several latest nuclear data libraries. Comparative results indicated a good qualitative agreement between experimental measurements and numerical calculations in terms of trend distribution, while significant quantitative discrepancies were observed among calculations based on individual nuclear data libraries.