Process for recovering tritium from molten lithium metal

Patent · 01 January 1976

OSTI ID:862544

Maroni, Victor A ^[1]

---

1. Naperville, IL

Lithium tritide (LiT) is extracted from molten lithium metal that has been exposed to neutron irradiation for breeding tritium within a thermonuclear or fission reactor. The extraction is performed by intimately contacting the molten lithium metal with a molten lithium salt, for instance, lithium chloride - potassium chloride eutectic to distribute LiT between the salt and metal phases. The extracted tritium is recovered in gaseous form from the molten salt phase by a subsequent electrolytic or oxidation step.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• Assignee: United States of America as represented by United States Energy (Washington, DC)
• Patent Number(s): US 3957597
• OSTI ID: 862544
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/205/376/423/976/
breeding
chloride
contacting
distribute
electrolytic
eutectic
exposed
extracted
extraction
fission
fission reactor
form
gaseous
gaseous form
instance
intimately
irradiation
lithium
lithium chloride
lithium metal
lithium salt
metal
metal phase
metal phases
molten
molten lithium
molten salt
neutron
neutron irradiation
oxidation
oxidation step
performed
phase
phases
potassium
potassium chloride
process
reactor
recovered
recovering
recovering tritium
salt
step
subsequent
thermonuclear
tritide
tritium