Tritium removal from molten salt media in nuclear fusion and fission processes

熔盐（如FLiBe）作为聚变反应堆的包层材料越来越受到关注。许多被提议的用于将能量转化为热能用于发电的毯子材料，也可以作为氚增殖材料，如果回收，则可以为聚变生命周期提供氚自给自足的潜力。熔盐作为能量储存介质也受到了极大的关注，因为它们具有固有的安全特性，在核和非核系统中都是有利的，然而这些盐不断地产生氢的放射性同位素；氚，来自FLiBe熔盐下的核聚变和裂变操作。这提出了一个主要的设计挑战，因为氚需要被移除和分离，这样它就不会污染盐系统。因此，在熔盐系统中吸收氢同位素（如氚）需要仔细考虑核裂变和聚变反应堆中的下游氚管理系统。从熔融介质中去除氚对于未来部署聚变系统作为燃料的回收和熔盐的降解用于寿命终止退役和废物管理也很有意义。因此，该项目将探索熔盐中氚的化学行为和运输，为去除策略提供信息，并研究提供有效、可靠和安全的氚回收再利用的方法。

Molten salts (e.g. FLiBe) are of growing interest as blanket materials for fusion reactors. Many of the proposed blanket materials that are used to convert the energy to heat for electricity generation, can also act as a tritium breeder material providing the potential of tritium self -sufficiency to the fusion life-cycle if recovered. Molten salts have also received significant attention for energy storage media as they possess inherent safety features that are advantageous in nuclear and non nuclear systems, however these salts continuously produce the radioactive isotope of hydrogen; tritium, from the FLiBe molten salt under nuclear operations across both fusion and fission. This presents a major design challenge, as tritium needs to be removed and separated so that is does not contaminate the salt system. Therefore the uptake of hydrogen isotopes such as tritium in molten salt systems, requires careful consideration of downstream tritium management systems in nuclear fission and fusion reactors. Tritium removal from molten media is also of interest both in terms of recovery as fuel for the future deployment of fusion systems and detritiation of the molten salt for end of life decommissioning and waste management. This project will therefore explore the chemical behaviour and transport of tritium in molten salts to inform remova strategies and to investigate methods to provide efficient, reliable, and safe recovery of tritium for reuse.