Flowing Liquid Lithium for the Purpose of Reducing Tritium Inventory Levels in Fusion Energy Reactors
Authors: Charles A. Gentile, et. al.
Abstract:
A concern for fusion energy production reactors is
tritium inventory resident in vacuum vessel enclosures during
and after D-T operations. An immediate issue is the radiological
safety associated with large quantities of tritium at risk.
Additionally, there is an economic concern associated with the
cost of tritium, having a current value in excess of $30 K/gram.
Lithium has safely been deployed in fusion research reactors
with good success. Our concept builds upon existing work,
exploiting the ability of lithium to flow in toroidal and poloidal
directions. In our deployment configuration, Li is used to bind
with tritium deposited on main surfaces within the reactor
vacuum vessel and ancillary internal components. Lithium can
be used to wet appropriate surfaces within the vacuum vessel for
the purpose of removing surface tritium from internal reactor
structures, thus making it available for reuse as fuel.
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Submitted to: SOFE 2013 Proeedings (June 0213) 25th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, San Francisco, CA (June 10-14, 2013)
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Download PPPL-4908 (pdf 4.75 MB 2pp)
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