Thread by @bananelectrons

With the recent number of articles regarding fuel crisis of #FusionEnergy it's the right time to start public discussion on it
#ScientificMonday

wired.com/story/nuclear-…

news.newenergytimes.net/2022/06/11/the…

Right now, the tritium used in fusion experiments like @iterorg, and the smaller JET tokamak in the UK, comes from a very specific type of nuclear fission reactor called a heavy-water moderated reactor

Many of these reactors are reaching end of their working life, there are fewer than 30 left in operation worldwide —20 in Canada, 4 in South Korea, and 2 in Romania, each producing about 100 grams of tritium a year. (India has plans to build more, but who knows where it ends

The second problem with tritium is that it decays quickly. It has a half-life of 12.3 years, which means that when ITER is ready to start deuterium-tritium operations (in, as it happens, about 12.3 years), half of the tritium available today will have decayed into helium-3

Tritium costs $30,000 per gram, and it’s estimated that working fusion reactors will need up to 200 kg of it a year

The third problem is production of the necessary quantities of lithium enriched in the lithium-6 isotope

While production of tritium is likely to be solved by breeding.
Let's focus more on Li-6 enrichment, as it is the main driver for this fuel question

https://twitter.com/TheAndyHolland/status/1528161100369469442?t=kFf3BDr3Ztxdcq3GGMdzBg&s=09

Here is TLDR for the article on possible ways for lithium-6 supply of DEMO and future fusion power plants, maybe it could calm down some of you😺
Or may not...

In the past, lithium isotope separation has initially been developed for thermonuclear bombs🙀🙀🙀
It was used during the cold war to generate ceramic lithium-6 deuteride (6LiD) for the second stage of thermonuclear weapons

In the early 1950s, three processes have been tested in technical scale, OREX (organic exchange), ELEX (electrical exchange) and COLEX (column exchange)

Detailed information about lithium enrichment in other countries is not existing or not accessible to the public. Nevertheless, it is believed that similar activities took place in USA, UK, France, China, Israel, North Korea and probably also in Pakistan, India and Russia

Today the very limited demand of 6Li on the global market is supplied mainly by what has been produced in @ORNL in the 50s and 60 s. Typical market prices (as of April 2019) for the small amounts sold on the free market are in the order of 53 k€/kg (95% enriched)

In 1982, the costs for enrichment based on the COLEX process was estimated to be around 1 k€/kg (90% enriched)

On a technical-scale enrichment process, there are a number of criteria that have to be considered⬇

In general, all existing processes can be sorted into four major groups based on their working principle. These groups are: (1) chemical exchange methods, (2) electrochemical exchange methods, (3) displacement chromatography methods and (4) laser-based methods

Chemical exchange systems that have been investigated in the past are the lithium amalgam system, cation complexing systems using mainly cyclic polyethers and cryptands, the liquid ammonia system, systems using organic or inorganic ion exchangers and intercalation systems

Electrochemical separation benefits from the effect of different mobility of lithium ions while traveling in a fluid or through a membrane. F.e. electrolyses on mercury or other cathodes, electromigration or electrophoreses

Displacement chromatography is based on a chemical interaction between lithium solved in a mobile phase (liquid) and lithium adsorbed at a solid surface (organic or inorganic resin as stationary phase)

Laser-based methods are generally based on the selective excitation of the desired isotope and its subsequent separation from the feed stream by electric or magnetic separation

Main reason for lithium amalgam chemical exchange process is its good scalability and the possibility for reprocessing. It is a proven and robust process, not very complex and standard process plant equipment can be used (e.g. columns, pumps, electrolyses cells)

Furthermore, the working fluid mercury is available in the required quantities – even if there are some regulatory specialities that have to be considered

The working principle of the lithium amalgam chemical exchange process is based on isotopic exchange between lithium amalgam and an aqueous lithium hydroxide solution, flowing in large counter current columns

In the past, a lithium amalgam chemical exchange process was used in US for large-scale lithium enrichment – the COLEX process – and caused significant environmental issues

Since that time, technology has been enhanced and environmental protection and monitoring as well as occupational health and safety have become an intrinsic element of each chemical plant development process

As consequence, if a process applying lithium amalgam as working fluid shall be applied today, no environmental issues would be expected (or the process would not be licensed at all)

the result of the assessment is proposing to apply an improved lithium amalgam chemical exchange process, the so-called ICOMAX-process (short for Improved COlumn-based Mercury Amalgam eXchange), for the production of the breeder material needed for future fusion reactors

Suggested schedule for a lithium enrichment route for DEMO

Indeed #FusionEnergy is industry of disruptive technology, but I guess, fusion industry should be as much transparent as it could talking about fuel requirements
What do you think, guys?
@Fusion_Industry @takaomae @_RJPearson @dsutherland00 @RocketJoy @energy_common