Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) Loop: Design and Manufacture

The UK Government has given UKAEA the goal to maintain the UK’s position as a world leader in fusion research and development. As part of this the UKAEA Fusion Technology Facilities (FTF) is establishing a new facility at the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham, Yorkshire. This facility considers the full development cycle from materials technology, to advanced manufacturing and joining, to component testing and will be the home to the Combined Heating and Magnetic Research Apparatus (CHIMERA) test facility. A future upgrade proposed for CHIMERA is the addition of a liquid lithium-lead (LiPb) circulation loop located within the existing high-field magnetic field (Figure 1). This upgrade would enable the capability for Water-Cooled LiPb (WCLL) Breeder Zone (BZ) testing under high magnetic field and flux after 2024 to enable heat transfer experiments at component scale but also aid fusion system design.