Improved liquid lithium surfaces in the Lithium Tokamak Experiment-β

Boyle, D. P.; Maan, A.; Majeski, R.; Ostrowski, E.; Abe, S.; Banerjee, S.; Capecchi, W.; Elliott, D. B.; Hansen, C.; Jung, E.; Hughes, P. E.; Kubota, S.; Lampert, M.; Maingi, R.; McLean, A. G.; Menard, J. E.; Morales, J. J.; Soukhanovskii, V. A.

doi:10.1016/j.nme.2025.101949

Improved liquid lithium surfaces in the Lithium Tokamak Experiment-β

Journal Article · Sat May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Nuclear Materials and Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2025.101949· OSTI ID:2565561

^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Ostrowski, E. ^[2]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Capecchi, W. ^[3]; Elliott, D. B. ^[4]; Hansen, C. ^[5]; Jung, E. ^[1]; Hughes, P. E. ^[1]; Kubota, S. ^[6]; ^[1]; ^[1]; McLean, A. G. ^[7]; ^[1]; Morales, J. J. ^[1]; Soukhanovskii, V. A. ^[7]

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Advances in vacuum, surface, and lithium conditioning techniques throughout five years of continuous operations in LTX-β have produced mirror-like liquid lithium surfaces and demonstrated the feasibility of high-performance tokamak discharges fully surrounded by liquid metal without significant operational problems. Improvements in conditioning techniques and procedures, including many weeks of baking and accumulation of 70 g of Li, led to reduced residual gasses and clean Li surfaces - all while still maintaining enough operational flexibility for multiple in-vacuum diagnostic upgrades and calibrations. Coatings had a visibly clean appearance, with reflective liquid metal demonstrating good wetting and surface adhesion with films that were now macroscopically thick. Solidified Li showed large crystal grains, while surface science measurements observed reduced impurities in the lithium. Steadily improved plasma performance was achieved with liquid lithium, with discharges able to match solid Li in terms of evolution of I_p and n_e, including rapid density pumping indicating low recycling. There were indications of moderately increased Li impurity influx, though few significant disturbances by the large liquid surfaces on tokamak operations over hundreds of discharges. Liquid metal plasma facing components are a potential solution to the extreme heat and particle fluxes that could cause unacceptable damage to solid materials, while liquid lithium also has the potential for greatly increased confinement in the low-recycling regime. While many liquid metal approaches are possible, and numerous experiments have been conducted in test stands and small modules in fusion devices, LTX-β is the only tokamak operated while fully surrounded by liquid metal.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-09CH11466; AC05-00OR22725; AC52-07NA27344; SC0019006; SC0019308; SC0023481; SC0024898

OSTI ID:: 2565561

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2564543
OSTI ID: 2566827

Report Number(s):: LLNL--JRNL-866208

Journal Information:: Nuclear Materials and Energy, Journal Name: Nuclear Materials and Energy Vol. 43; ISSN 2352-1791

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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