Speaker: Paul Humrickhouse, ORNL

Title: "Production and extraction of tritium from breeding blankets"

Abstract: One of the significant challenges on the path to fusion energy is closing the tritium fuel cycle, in particular the “outer” fuel cycle in which tritium is bred in the blanket and extracted for re-use as fuel. This talk will give an overview of the history and evolution of breeding blanket designs, outline how several distinct concepts presently being pursued evolved to meet the tritium production, power conversion, and other key engineering needs of fusion systems, and highlight some of the key research and development needs associated with each. A key challenge common to all blanket concepts is the need to minimize tritium losses via unwanted permeation, a significant safety issue which is exacerbated by the high coolant temperatures otherwise desirable in order to maximize power conversion efficiency. Highly efficient tritium extraction systems help mitigate this while performing the necessary function of separation for re-use as fuel. Such systems are presently in the earliest stages of development, and an overview of extraction concepts, the underlying transport phenomena they seek to exploit, and the present status of their research and development will be given, with a particular focus on concepts appropriate for high-temperature liquid breeders.  

Bio: Paul Humrickhouse is a Distinguished Scientist and Blanket Program lead at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Since joining ORNL in 2021, he has worked on various aspects of the design and analysis of tritium breeding blankets for fusion reactors, including neutronic and activation analysis, thermal hydraulics and heat transfer, and tritium transport.

Prior to joining ORNL, he led the Fusion Safety Program at INL, where his research focused primarily on the development and application of the MELCOR and TMAP codes for safety analysis and tritium transport and the application of these in design studies including ARIES and FNSF as well as to ITER and its Test Blanket Modules.  He was occasionally involved in the design, execution, or analysis of experiments on tritium and aerosol transport that help inform these codes. He also frequently engaged in synergistic analyses of tritium and radionuclide transport in fission reactors, including high-temperature gas-cooled and molten salt reactors.

He received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin, where he specialized in the analysis of activated dust transport following a MS focused on neutronics.

Dr. Humrickhouse is a member of the American Nuclear Society and present Vice Chair of its Fusion Energy Division, as well as IEEE and its Fusion Technology Standing Committee from 2015-2020. He was a participant in FES strategic planning efforts in 2019-2020, first as a member of the program committee for the APS Division of Plasma Physics (APS-DPP) Community Planning Process (CPP), and subsequently as a member of the FESAC Long Range Planning Subcommittee. He received a 2020 DOE FES Early Career Award, which supports his ongoing research and development of integrated multiphysics modeling tools for application to fusion reactor blankets.

This talk will be offered in a hybrid format. If you wish to participate remotely, please send an email to [email protected].