Study of safety features and accident scenarios in a fusion DEMO reactor

•This paper reports progress in the fusion DEMO safety research conducted under the Broader Approach DEMO Design Activities.•Hazards of a reference DEMO concept have been assessed.•Reference accident event sequences in the reference DEMO in this study have been analyzed based on the master logic diagram (MLD) and the functional failure mode and effect analysis (FFMEA) techniques.•Accident events of particular concern in the DEMO have been selected based on the MLD and FFMEA analysis.

After the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident, a need for assuring safety of fusion energy has grown in the Japanese (JA) fusion research community. DEMO safety research has been launched as a part of Broader Approach DEMO Design Activities (BA-DDA). This paper reports progress in the fusion DEMO safety research conducted under BA-DDA. Safety requirements and evaluation guidelines have been, first of all, established based on those established in the Japanese ITER site invitation activities. The radioactive source terms and energies that can mobilize such source terms have been assessed for a reference DEMO concept. This concept employs in-vessel components that are cooled by pressurized water and built of a low activation ferritic steel (F82H), contains solid pebble beds made of lithium-titanate (Li2TiO3) and beryllium–titanium (Be12Ti) for tritium breeding and neutron multiplication, respectively. It is shown that unlike the energies expected in ITER, the enthalpy in the first wall/blanket cooling loops is large compared to the other energies expected in the reference DEMO concept. Reference accident event sequences in the reference DEMO in this study have been analyzed based on the Master Logic Diagram and Functional Failure Mode and Effect Analysis techniques. Accident events of particular concern in the DEMO have been selected based on the event sequence analysis and the hazard assessment.