Aspects of tritium release from neutron-irradiated lithium oxide

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5701564

O'Kula, K R

Lithium oxide is a compound that may satisfy tritium breeding requirements with enhanced safety in proposed fusion reactors. An experimental program was developed to establish tritium release characteristics for Li/sub 2/O that consisted of 1) test material definition, 2) tritium generation, and 3) study of the tritium release process in an out-of-reactor tritium detection system. Source material was obtained from single crystal solidified melts of > 99.4 wt.% purity. Representative parameters of the lithium oxide were obtained through two-dimensional SEM image, gas-adsorption, density, and neutron activation analyses. Ampoules of 10-30 mg mass lithium oxide were irradiated to a fluence of 6.8 x 10/sup 16/ in the University of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor. Small masses (5-10 mg) of the tritiated lithium oxide were processed in a thermal extraction apparatus at 673-973 K under varying helium (33-67 cm/sup 3//min) and hydrogen (0-2 cm/sup 3//min) sweep gas conditions. It was established from late-stage release curves that solid-phase diffusion of tritium ultimately controls the overall release process.

• Research Organization: Wisconsin Univ., Madison (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5701564
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
LITHIUM OXIDES
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
TRITIUM
DIFFUSION
PRODUCTION MECHANISMS
HIGH TEMPERATURE
NEUTRONS
SAFETY
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
BARYONS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHALCOGENIDES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
LITHIUM COMPOUNDS
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIATION EFFECTS
RADIOISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
360206* - Ceramics
Cermets
& Refractories- Radiation Effects
700206 - Fusion Power Plant Technology- Environmental Aspects