Design and qualification of an on-line permeator for the recovery of tritium from lead-lithium eutectic breeding alloy

The fast and efficient recovery of bred tritium represents a major milestone of tritium breeding technologies R&D and is key for the demonstration of fusion reactor fuel self-sufficiency. For lead-lithium eutectic, diverse technologies are currently being investigated and qualified. Permeator Against Vacuum (PAV) solution represents a firm candidate because: (i) runs as a single-step process for tritium on-line recovery, (ii) works passively allowing to be thermally governed, (iii) can be easily in-pipe integrated in Pb15.7Li loop systems and (iv) can be conceived with high compactness. An optimal design of a PAV requires a detailed hydraulic design optimization for established operational ranges. An optimal PAV design is proposed and qualified by numerical simulation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.