Speaker
Description
Project VICE has demonstrated the manufacture of multiple morphologies of lithium metatitanate of a controlled quality at kg scale, with the potential to scale up manufacturing capabilities for future commercial fusion power stations. The project will irradiate samples of these ceramics in a controlled irradiation environment using the ISIS NILE D-T neutron source to generate tritium. An engineered rig, including shielding and supports, has been designed to contain a ceramic-loaded capsule and minimise the potential dose from ionising radiation. Handling and transport requirements for low activity samples have also been identified and explored, with the radiological hazards from activated materials assessed with the support of neutronics analyses. Under conditions of elevated temperature complete tritium recovery has previously been demonstrated using a helium purge gas [1], [2], [3], [4]. Project VICE has therefore developed a tritium extraction and measurement system to understand in more detail the impact of temperature and morphology of the ceramic breeder material on the rate and extent of tritium extraction.
[1] Y. Kawamura et al., ‘Effect of sweep gas species on tritium release behavior from lithium titanate packed bed during 14 MeV neutron irradiation’, Fusion Eng. Des., vol. 87, no. 7– 8, pp. 1253–1257, Aug. 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2012.02.125.
[2] W. Wu et al., ‘Experiment study on tritium release behavior of Li2TiO3 ceramic breeder irradiated by 14 MeV fusion neutron’, Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, vol. 68, pp. 1393–1397, May 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.04.256.
[3] M. Kobayashi, Y. Oya, K. Munakata, and K. Okuno, ‘Developing a tritium release model for Li2TiO3 with irradiation-induced defects’, J. Nucl. Mater., vol. 458, pp. 22–28, Mar. 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2014.11.047.
[4] K. Ochiai et al., ‘A new blanket tritium recovery experiment with intense DT neutron source at JAEA/FNS’, Fusion Eng. Des., vol. 109–111, pp. 1143–1147, Nov. 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2016.01.002.
| Speaker affiliation | Oxford Sigma |
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