This technology integrates a fusion neutron source with a surrounding pebble-bed fission blanket to increase usable thermal output while addressing fuel availability and long-lived nuclear waste. The modular blanket uses replaceable engineered pebbles and gas cooling to support power production, fuel conversion, and actinide/long lived isotopes transmutation. The concept is intended to improve the economic potential of fusion-based systems by combining high-energy neutron production with the power-generating capability of fission and with the option of burning long lived isotopes and/or producing a net amount of fissile material and tritium.
Description
The reactor concept places a structurally robust bed of specially engineered, nested pebbles around the fusion system’s first wall. Each pebble contains a specialized combination of neutron-interacting, fertile, fissile, actinide-bearing and tritium producing materials arranged to support reactions under fast-neutron exposure. The pebble bed blanket is helium-gas cooled, and the pebbles can be replaced continuously to support material management and refueling during operation. High-energy neutrons from fusion drive fission reactions in the surrounding blanket, producing additional thermal power and potentially converting fertile material into fissile fuel. The same neutron environment may also transmute selected long-lived actinides and isotopes found in nuclear waste and breeds tritium from lithium-based materials. By coupling fusion neutron generation with a replaceable pebble-bed blanket, the technology offers a pathway to higher system output and expanded fuel and waste-management functions without relying solely on fusion power generation.
Benefits
- Increased thermal power output compared with fusion alone
- Production of fissile fuel from fertile materials
- Transmutation of selected long-lived actinides and isotopes
- Net production of tritium
- Replaceable pebble-bed architecture for operational flexibility
- Helium-cooled design for high-temperature reactor environments
Applications and Industries
- Nuclear power generation
- Nuclear fuel production and processing
- Nuclear waste management and actinide transmutation
- Advanced reactor development
- Fusion-fission hybrid systems
Contact
To learn more about this technology, email [email protected] or call 865-574-1051.
Researchers
Contact
To learn more about this technology, email [email protected] or call 865-574-1051.