Extraction of hydrogen isotopes from molten lithium

这个博士学位的重点是研究熔融锂在增殖包层系统中的使用，这是一个未来的核聚变反应堆，并调查了一些不同的物理特性。化学参数和现象学材料行为，以便熔融锂在聚变反应堆增殖包层内的性能可以很好地定义。博士将首先研究含有不同浓度氢的锂在聚变反应堆中的熔化行为。氘（作为氚的替代物），并将研究使用气体插入和真空提取来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的形成逐渐降解，（ii）氧化物和氢氧化物的悬浮微粒对氢提取有什么影响;以及（iii）锂与潜在增殖包层壁材料（例如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，包括手套箱热重分析系统以及氢气流量控制装置与集成炉。该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。锂被公认为是核聚变的重要元素，因为轻同位素锂-6被认为是可用于基于中子生产氚的主要同位素-聚变燃料的主要成分。

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.