Speaker
Description
Tritium breeding blankets are essential to fuel the fusion reaction, and lithium-containing liquid metals are proposed as breeding materials since they can effectively absorb neutrons from the fusion reaction and produce tritium.1,2 However, liquid metals pose chemical challenges, e.g., high alkalinity and/or corrosiveness, which can be exacerbated by non-metallic impurities.3 Whilst understanding these factors and developing suitable monitoring is crucial in optimizing the safe and efficient performance of the breeding blanket, only limited data on impurity effects are available. This is in part due to measurement challenges.
To address this, we have designed and fabricated a setup for the measurement of the Raman spectra of samples under fusion relevant conditions (from ambient temperatures up to 500 °C under an argon atmosphere) and will present our work on the chemical identification and monitoring of impurities in lithium in both solid (room temperature) and liquid (high temperature) forms.
We will present and discuss our pioneering work, which has shown that Raman spectroscopy is capable of detecting the presence of specific non-metallic impurities at solid or liquid lithium metal surfaces; impurities studied include oxides, nitrides and carbides. In addition, we will present work to determine the characteristic responses of hydrides and deuterides, which opens up the prospect of tritide detection and monitoring, and increased process understanding and control.
References:
[1] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2021.112933
[2] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2024.114333
[3] https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5088(77)90263-6
| Speaker affiliation | University of Edinburgh |
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