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The Fusion Blanket Hid Its Inventory in Slow Water

An open multiphysics model put tritium accumulation near flow stagnation zones and made numerical stabilization the dominant uncertainty.

Published Updated Story ID: mp-2026-08-09-012
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Summary

An open multiphysics model put tritium accumulation near flow stagnation zones and made numerical stabilization the dominant uncertainty.

OpenMC, OpenFOAM and FESTIM were coupled to model neutron, fluid, heat and isotope transport in an ARC-class molten-salt breeding blanket. Under a zero-concentration inlet assumption, the steady-state calculation produced about 243 milligrams of tritium and roughly 30 minutes to steady throughput; accumulation localized in stagnation regions and fell in turbulent zones. Sensitivity was driven mainly by the numerical stabilization scheme, so the figures are model outputs, not reactor measurements.

Why it matters

An open multiphysics model put tritium accumulation near flow stagnation zones and made numerical stabilization the dominant uncertainty.

Limits and context

  • Sensitivity was driven mainly by the numerical stabilization scheme, so the figures are model outputs, not reactor measurements.

Key claims

  1. An open multiphysics model put tritium accumulation near flow stagnation zones and made numerical stabilization the dominant uncertainty.

    Qualification: Sensitivity was driven mainly by the numerical stabilization scheme, so the figures are model outputs, not reactor measurements.

    Evidence: source-2026-08-09-012

Sources

  1. arXiv preprint 2608.05398arXiv · primary research

Corrections

No corrections have been recorded for this story.