Hydrogen Isotopes Recovery from Liquid Lithium under Dynamic Conditions

In the IFMIF （International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility）, high-intensity deuteron ion beam is targeted at flowing liquid Li to produce neutron for long-time irradiation test of fusion materials. Radioactive tritium （T） will be produced as by-product of the D-Li reaction. Y hot trap is expected as an effective system to recover T from the liquid Li target loop. In the present study, absorption behavior of hydrogen isotopes in Y plates is experimentally and analytically investigated under stirring conditions of liquid Li. Experiments clarified that H2 absorption rates of solid Y immersed in Li are independent of the rotating rate in the range of 0 to 100 rpm and are in proportion to the inlet H2 concentration. The rate-determining step is H diffusion in Y. A mass-transfer coefficient is a useful parameter to correlate the overall H transfer from the gaseous phase through liquid Li to the solid Y plate. The effect of activation temperature on the overall performance when Y absorbs H is comparatively investigated. It is considered that heating at 673 K is effective to activate Y along with HF treatment.