LNF: Producción industrial Pb-15.7Li

LNF - Public Private Partnership

Title: PRODUCCIÓN INDUSTRIAL DE LA ALEACIÓN EUTÉCTICA DE LITIO-PLOMO- EUTECTICS®

Reference: CPP2021-008665

Programme and date: PROGRAMA ESTATAL PARA IMPULSAR LA INVESTIGACIÓN CIENTÍFICO-TÉCNICA Y SU TRANSFERENCIA, DEL PLAN ESTATAL DE INVESTIGACIÓN CIENTÍFICA, TÉCNICA Y DE INNOVACIÓN 2021-2023, EN EL MARCO DEL PLAN DE RECUPERACIÓN, TRANSFORMACIÓN Y RESILIENCIA

Programme type (Modalidad de proyecto): COLABORACIÓN PÚBLICO-PRIVADA

Principal Investigator(s): Belit Garcinuño (CIEMAT)

Project type: Proyecto coordinado

Start-end dates: 2022 - 2025

Financing granted (direct costs): 599.549,80 €

Description of the project

The eutectic alloy of lithium and lead [15,7(2) % at Li with exact composition yet to be certified] is a functional tritium regenerating material and "base of design" for fusion reactors under construction, ITER and future (DEMO). ITER will require tons of the alloy as material in the systems (TBM, Test Blanket Modules) together with tons of the material for the ongoing experimental programs around the world: in the EU, Japan, India, the United States , Korea and China. The material was born at the end of the 70s as a proposal for laboratory material [D.K. Sze (INEL, United States), v. Coen (JRC Ispra, EU)] on a laboratory scale far from the quality standards of a nuclear material. Industrial and development returns in the coming years in the EU alone are estimated at around €40 million, depending on certain programmatic variables and the demonstration of its manufacture under Nuclear Material standards (IAEA Standards, RCC_MR Codes, ISO, ASTM,...) represents a technological challenge of the first order and is, without a doubt, an enormous opportunity for potential contribution and industrial returns from Spanish companies to ITER. Producing the alloy without quality assurance is not high-tech and some well-known laboratories in the world do it. Producing the alloy with the required quality assurance of a nuclear material and whose characteristics affect the safety of the reactor, is a true high-tech challenge in aspects related with: (1) the final certification of the title in lithium, (2) the homogeneity without segregation of lithium at sub millimetric scales, (3) the extreme control of impurities and (4) the demands of certified characterization of its functional database under standards as nuclear material. The production of the eutectic alloy for its final use in ITER (N, TT, IN phases of TBMs) requires the capacity to produce significant quantities of 6Li and the demonstration of an industrially scalable and quality-assured alloying technique. Our Project aims to demonstrate the manufacturing capacity of the material with the complete Quality Assurance of the eutectic as nuclear material from an industrially scalable technique to meet the assessed supply demands in the EU and in other ITER Programs. The main challenge of the project consists of the experimental demonstration of an industrially scalable production technique of the eutectic alloy of Lithium-Lead (Pb-15.7(2)Li); along with the enrichment capacity in 6Li, all under Nuclear Material Standards. Its 4 main OBJECTIVES: (1) Establishment of the Standard (UNE) of Quality of the material in its production, handling and qualification. Establishment of a national network of characterization and qualification laboratories. (2) Experimental demonstration of a scalable Li(6) isotopic separation technique (1 kg); (3) Experimental demonstration of a Li-Pb mixing technique under quality requirements; industrially scalable (1 Tn); (4) Key actions towards industrialization in the production of lots of Pb-15.76Li. To achieve the Objectives of the Project, the activities are structured in the realization of 22 specific tasks of public-private collaboration between our Company FUS_ALIANZ and the Chemical Institute of Sarrià, the Rovira i Virgili University, CIEMAT, IDONIAL and CIEMAT. Nominated subcontractors are UNED, IPUL (Latvia) and Riera Nadeu S.A.

References

[1] Belit Garcinuño, Rocío Fernández-Saavedra, Teresa Hernández, Alberto Quejido, David Rapisarda; “Establishing technical specifications for PbLi eutectic alloy analysis and its relevance in fusion applications”; NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND ENERGY (2022) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2022.101146

[2] M. I. Barrena et al., “Obtención de aleaciones eutécticas PbLi mediante procesos de fusion”, Rev. Metal. 48-6 (2012) 437-444

[3] R. Fernández-Saavedra, B. Garcinuño, M. Gómez-Mancebo, F. Borlaf, A. Cardona, M. González-Macías, M. Clavero, J. Patiño, J. Navas, T. Hernández, J. García-Ferreño, J. Artímez, J. Abellà, S. Colominas, J. Herranz, L. Sedano, D. Rapisarda, A. Quejido, Comparative study of preparation methods and properties of lead-lithium eutectic for fusion technology. 15th International Symposium on Fusion Nuclear Technologies (15-ISFNT) – Poster presentation PS4-61. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (España) 10-15 septiembre 2023

[4] L. Sedano, M. Guasch, J. Abellà , S. Colominas, F. Medina, J.M. Artimez, D. Rapisarda, B. Garcinuño, R. Fernandez, F. Ogando, L. Buligin, Producción industrial de la aleación eutéctica de litio-plomo enriquecida en 6Li (Pb-15.76Li): material estratégico en Tecnología de Fusión. 47ª Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Nuclear Española, Poster 40_05. Cartagena (España) 26-30 septiembre 2022

[5] B. Garcinuño, R. Fernández-Saavedra, T. Hernández, A. Quejido, D. Rapisarda, Protocol for PbLi eutectic alloy analysis and its relevance in fusion applications. 20th International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials (20-ICFRM) – Poster T_PS_2_C-79. Virtual meeting, 24-29 octubre 2021

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