Extraction of hydrogen isotopes from molten lithium

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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.