Extraction of hydrogen isotopes from molten lithium

从熔融锂中提取氢同位素

• 批准号: 2764619
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2764619
• 关键词: Extraction; hydrogen; isotopes; molten; lithium

The focus of this PhD is to examine the use of molten lithium in the breeder blanket system is a future nuclear fusion reactors and to investigate a number of the different physio-chemical parameters and phenomenological material behaviours such that the performance of molten lithium inside a fusion reactor's breeder blanket can be well defined.The PhD will examine initially the melting behaviour of lithium containing different concentrations of hydrogen in deuterium (as surrogates for tritium) and will examine the use of gas insertion and vacuum extraction to optimise the extraction of these hydrogen isotopes.The project will also examine the reactivity of molten lithium when exposed to different gases containing oxidising agent such as water vapour, oxygen and nitrogen to understand (i) the gradual degradation of the molten lithium, through oxide and hydroxide formation, (ii) what effect suspended microparticles of oxide and hydroxide have on hydrogen extraction; and (iii) the interaction of lithium with potential breeder blanket wall materials e.g. SiC, Zr, ODS and Eurofer steel.The experimental PhD will be achieved using the glovebox facility for uranium and reactive metals in the Interface Analysis Centre at the University of Bristol, including a glovebox housed thermos-gravimetric analysis system as well as hydrogen gas flow-control rigs with integrated furnaces.The purpose of this PhD is to better define and optimise the extraction of hydrogen isotopes from molten lithium metal. Lithium is well recognised as being an important element for nuclear fusion in that the light isotope lithium-6 is regarded as the primary isotope that can be used for the neutron-based production of tritium - a primary component of fusion fuel.

本博士的重点是研究未来核聚变反应堆增殖包层系统中熔融锂的使用，并研究许多不同的物理化学参数和现象学材料行为，从而可以很好地定义聚变反应堆增殖包层内熔融锂的性能。博士将首先研究含有不同浓度氢的锂在氘（作为氚的替代品）中的熔化行为，并将研究气体插入和真空萃取的使用，以优化这些氢同位素的提取。该项目还将研究熔融锂暴露于含有氧化剂的不同气体（如水蒸气、氧气和氮气）时的反应性，以了解(i)熔融锂通过氧化物和氢氧化物形成的逐渐降解，（ii）悬浮的氧化物和氢氧化物微粒对氢气提取的影响；（iii）锂与潜在增殖毯壁材料（如SiC、Zr、ODS和Eurofer钢）的相互作用。实验博士学位将使用布里斯托尔大学界面分析中心的铀和活性金属手套箱设施来实现，包括一个手套箱装的热重分析系统以及带集成炉的氢气流动控制平台。本博士学位的目的是更好地定义和优化从熔融锂金属中提取氢同位素的方法。锂被公认为是核聚变的重要元素，因为轻同位素锂-6被认为是可用于以中子为基础生产氚的主要同位素，氚是聚变燃料的主要成分。