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ARIES-RS is one of the major magnetic fusion energy reactor designs that uses a blanket having vanadium alloy structure cooled by lithium [1, 2]. It is a deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion driven reactor, having a fusion power of 2170 MW [1, 2]. This study presents the neutronic analysis of the ARIES-RS fusion reactor using heavy metal molten salts in which Li(2)BeF(4) as the main constituent was mixed with increased mole fractions of heavy metal salt (ThF(4) or UF(4)) starting by 2 mol.% up to 12 mol.%. Neutron transport calculations were carried out with the help of the SCALE 4.3 system by solving the Boltzmann transport equation with the XSDRNPM code in 238 neutron groups and a S(8)-P(3) approximation. According to the numerical results, tritium self-sufficiency was attained for the coolants, Flibe with 2% UF(4) or ThF(4) and 4% UF(4). In addition, higher energy multiplication values were found for the salt with UF(4) compared to that with ThF(4). Furthermore, significant amount of high quality nuclear fuel was produced to be used in external reactors.

This study presents the hydrogen production and fissile breeding potentials of Force-Free Helical Reactor (FFHR) fueled with the molten-salt mixtures. The sulfur-iodine (S-I) thermochemical water-splitting and high-temperature electrolysis cycles, which are the most promising water-splitting cycles, are selected to produce large-scale and pure hydrogen. The XSDRNPM/SCALE4.4a neutron transport code is used for the neutronic calculations. The analyses have been performed individually for four different molten-salt mixtures, (pure FLiBe, mixture of FLiBe and ThF4, mixture of FLiBe and UF4, and mixture of FLiBe, ThF4 and (UF4)-U-233). The numerical results bring out that the considered molten-salt fusion breeder reactor has a high neutronic performance and can produce a considerable amount of the hydrogen production (up to 40 kg/s), as well as the fissile fuel (up to 2.5 tons/yr). (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transition-sensitive, single point eddy viscosity models are fairly new and performance assessment of these models is required. In this study, the performance of transition and turbulence models is first evaluated for predicting low Re number flows having laminar separation bubbles that are traditionally quite difficult to predict for RANS-based CFD methods. Second, suppression of the laminar separation bubbles using blowing and/or suction is investigated for a single aerofoil. A prior experimental study using hot-wire anemometry for a clean (no jet) NACA 2415 aerofoil at alpha = 8 degrees at a Reynolds number of 2 x 10(5) shows the presence of a laminar separation bubble. For this flow, the recently developed k-k(L)-omega transition model is first shown to accurately predict the location and extent of the experimentally measured separation bubble. Following this, the same transition model was used to predict the flow over the NACA 2415 aerofoil using single or simultaneous blowing or suction. In the single blowing or suction cases, the separation bubble is not completely eliminated, but either abated or moved downstream. Smaller blowing velocity ratios cause more effective suppression of the separation bubble than larger blowing ratios, independent of the blowing locations. In contrast, larger suction velocity ratios are better than smaller suction ratios for the suppression. Moreover, the lift/drag ratios increase as the jet location moves from the leading edge to a downstream direction in both cases. In the simultaneous blowing and suction cases, the k-k(L)-omega transition model is shown to suppress the separation bubble by using a mix of jet parameters which result in increased lift/drag ratios. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved., Foundation of Erciyes UniversityErciyes University; Scientific Research Projects Unit of Erciyes UniversityErciyes University [FBD-08-400], M. Serdar GENC thanks the Foundation of Erciyes University for the funding of visiting the North Dakota State University as an academic visitor. Moreover, the authors thank the Scientific Research Projects Unit of Erciyes University for scientific research funding under the contract no: FBD-08-400, and Dr. Y. Bora SUZEN for helping with the modelling of blowing/suction.

In this study, neutronic analysis of the HYLIFE-II reactor was investigated by inserting fuel rods containing UC or mixed ThC-UC into reflector zone partially. Four different coolants, namely, flibe, helium, natural lithium, and light water were considered in the fissile fuel breeding zone for comparison. Neutron transport calculations per incident (D,T) fusion neutron were performed by using the code Scale 4.3 under resonance-effect and resonance-free conditions. Numerical results pointed out that replacing the reflector zone by fissile fuel breeding zone even with a thickness of 14 cm improved the neutronic performance remarkably with respect to energy amplification and fissile fuel breeding.

ARIES-RS is one of the major magnetic fusion energy reactor designs that uses a blanket having vanadium alloy structure cooled by lithium [1, 2]. It is a deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion driven reactor, having a fusion power of 2170 MW [1, 2]. This study presents the neutronic analysis of the ARIES-RS fusion reactor using heavy metal molten salts in which Li(2)BeF(4) as the main constituent was mixed with increased mole fractions of heavy metal salt (ThF(4) or UF(4)) starting by 2 mol.% up to 12 mol.%. Neutron transport calculations were carried out with the help of the SCALE 4.3 system by solving the Boltzmann transport equation with the XSDRNPM code in 238 neutron groups and a S(8)-P(3) approximation. According to the numerical results, tritium self-sufficiency was attained for the coolants, Flibe with 2% UF(4) or ThF(4) and 4% UF(4). In addition, higher energy multiplication values were found for the salt with UF(4) compared to that with ThF(4). Furthermore, significant amount of high quality nuclear fuel was produced to be used in external reactors.

This study presents the hydrogen production and fissile breeding potentials of Force-Free Helical Reactor (FFHR) fueled with the molten-salt mixtures. The sulfur-iodine (S-I) thermochemical water-splitting and high-temperature electrolysis cycles, which are the most promising water-splitting cycles, are selected to produce large-scale and pure hydrogen. The XSDRNPM/SCALE4.4a neutron transport code is used for the neutronic calculations. The analyses have been performed individually for four different molten-salt mixtures, (pure FLiBe, mixture of FLiBe and ThF4, mixture of FLiBe and UF4, and mixture of FLiBe, ThF4 and (UF4)-U-233). The numerical results bring out that the considered molten-salt fusion breeder reactor has a high neutronic performance and can produce a considerable amount of the hydrogen production (up to 40 kg/s), as well as the fissile fuel (up to 2.5 tons/yr). (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transition-sensitive, single point eddy viscosity models are fairly new and performance assessment of these models is required. In this study, the performance of transition and turbulence models is first evaluated for predicting low Re number flows having laminar separation bubbles that are traditionally quite difficult to predict for RANS-based CFD methods. Second, suppression of the laminar separation bubbles using blowing and/or suction is investigated for a single aerofoil. A prior experimental study using hot-wire anemometry for a clean (no jet) NACA 2415 aerofoil at alpha = 8 degrees at a Reynolds number of 2 x 10(5) shows the presence of a laminar separation bubble. For this flow, the recently developed k-k(L)-omega transition model is first shown to accurately predict the location and extent of the experimentally measured separation bubble. Following this, the same transition model was used to predict the flow over the NACA 2415 aerofoil using single or simultaneous blowing or suction. In the single blowing or suction cases, the separation bubble is not completely eliminated, but either abated or moved downstream. Smaller blowing velocity ratios cause more effective suppression of the separation bubble than larger blowing ratios, independent of the blowing locations. In contrast, larger suction velocity ratios are better than smaller suction ratios for the suppression. Moreover, the lift/drag ratios increase as the jet location moves from the leading edge to a downstream direction in both cases. In the simultaneous blowing and suction cases, the k-k(L)-omega transition model is shown to suppress the separation bubble by using a mix of jet parameters which result in increased lift/drag ratios. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved., Foundation of Erciyes UniversityErciyes University; Scientific Research Projects Unit of Erciyes UniversityErciyes University [FBD-08-400], M. Serdar GENC thanks the Foundation of Erciyes University for the funding of visiting the North Dakota State University as an academic visitor. Moreover, the authors thank the Scientific Research Projects Unit of Erciyes University for scientific research funding under the contract no: FBD-08-400, and Dr. Y. Bora SUZEN for helping with the modelling of blowing/suction.

In this study, neutronic analysis of the HYLIFE-II reactor was investigated by inserting fuel rods containing UC or mixed ThC-UC into reflector zone partially. Four different coolants, namely, flibe, helium, natural lithium, and light water were considered in the fissile fuel breeding zone for comparison. Neutron transport calculations per incident (D,T) fusion neutron were performed by using the code Scale 4.3 under resonance-effect and resonance-free conditions. Numerical results pointed out that replacing the reflector zone by fissile fuel breeding zone even with a thickness of 14 cm improved the neutronic performance remarkably with respect to energy amplification and fissile fuel breeding.