Rotating liquid blanket with no first wall for fusion reactors

A toroidal vortex of liquid FLiBe (LiF + BeF/sub 2/) is suggested for the blanket of a fusion reactor. Because this system has no solid first wall, it might avoid many of the problems that accompany conventional blanket design. The liquid is sustained by nozzles that inject a continuous layer of cool liquid on the inner surface. A second set of nozzles sends a stream of droplets across the diverted scrape-off layer or edge plasma to carry its heat away. The feasibility issues of most importance are judged to be avoiding turbulent breakup of the vortex and preventing too much contamination of the plasma by the evaporating FLiBe. 6 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.