On the separation of lithium isotopes by the method of molecular distillation of liquid lithium

This study determines the value of the separation factor of lithium isotopes in the evaporation of liquid metallic lithium in a single-stage still. At a temperature of 500 °C the value of the separation factor is 1.08 ± 0.02. We carried out studies of the separation of lithium isotopes by the method of molecular distillation in an 8 -stage cascade-type metal still. It was shown that when the cells of the still are filled with metallic packing and the condensation temperature of the lithium is raised to 350 °C, the efficiency of one stage of the still is 0.4–0.5.     

Heavy hydrogen and neutron isotopes

The article discusses the latest experimental data on the states of four-nucleon and five-nucleon nuclei. They confirm the existence of three unbound excited states of He⁴: He⁴ (20.1 MeV, 0⁺, T = 0), He⁴ (22 MeV, 2^–, T = 0), He⁴ (24–25 MeV, 1^–, T = 1). The H⁴ and Li⁴ nuclei formed in the above processes have no bound states, and their lifetimes are of the order of 10^–22 sec. The H⁵ nucleus also has no bound state and decays to H³ + 2n with an energy of Q 1 MeV and a lifetime of the order of 10^–22 sec. The report that radioactivity has been observed in H⁵ is erroneous. An analysis of the binding energies of nuclei of known masses indicates that the tetraneutron also has no bound state. The H⁴, H⁵, and n⁴ nuclei, as well as the heavier hydrogen and neutron isotopes, lie beyond the limit of stability for decay with the emission of nucleons.Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 3–9, July, 1964     

Seebeck coefficient measurements of lithium isotopes

Lithium, owing to its many advantages, is of immense interest to the fusion community for its use as plasma facing component (PFC) material. Various experiments are under progress in the Center for Plasma Material Interactions (CPMI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) aimed at understanding the plasma-lithium interactions. In one such experiment called Solid/Liquid Lithium Divertor Experiment (SLiDE), it was recently observed that the flow of liquid lithium in the presence of magnetic fields is dominated by thermoelectric Magnetohydrodynamic (TEMHD) effects. To describe these results accurately, a knowledge of the thermoelectric properties of lithium is essential. For this purpose, an apparatus to measure the Seebeck coefficient of lithium was developed. Using this apparatus, the Seebeck coefficient of lithium as a function of temperature has been obtained. The Seebeck coefficient of lithium-7 is found to gradually increase from 11 μV/K to 25 μV/K, as the temperature is raised from 25 °C to 240 °C. These measurements are in good agreement with Kendall’s thermoelectric measurements on natural Li. Furthermore, using the same apparatus, the thermoelectric curve of lithium-6 is obtained and for the first time are reported in this paper.     

Discovery of yttrium, zirconium, niobium, technetium, and ruthenium isotopes

Currently, thirty-four yttrium, thirty-five zirconium, thirty-four niobium, thirty-five technetium, and thirty-eight ruthenium isotopes have been observed and the discovery of these isotopes is described here. For each isotope a brief synopsis of the first refereed publication, including the production and identification method, is presented.     

Hydrogen and helium recycling from stirred liquid lithium under steady state plasma bombardment

For improved core performance via edge plasma-wall boundary control, solid and liquid lithium has been used as a plasma-facing material in a number of confinement experiments over the past several decades. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable that lithium is saturated in the surface region with implanted hydrogenic species as well as oxygen-containing impurities. For steady state operation, a flowing liquid lithium divertor with forced convection would probably be required. In the present work, the effects of liquid stirring to simulate forced convection have been investigated on the behavior of hydrogen and helium recycling from molten lithium at temperatures up to ∼350 °C. Data indicate that liquid stirring reactivates hydrogen pumping via surface de-saturation and/or uncovering impurity films, but can also induce helium release via surface temperature change.     

Adsorption capacity of hydrogen isotopes on mordenite

In a fusion reactor system, a monitoring of hydrogen isotopes including tritium is necessary for the safety of system control and operation. A gas chromatography using a cryogenic separation column is one of the methods for hydrogen isotope analysis. Synthesis zeolite such as molecular sieve 5A (CaA) is a candidate material of the separation column, and its property varies by the ratio of silica to alumina, the kinds of cation and so on. If the factor affected the hydrogen adsorption property of the synthesis zeolite is clarified, it may lead to the development of the new zeolite optimized to the separation column. So, in this work, adsorption capacity of hydrogen (H₂) and deuterium (D₂) for mordenite (MOR) and NaY type zeolite (NaY) were investigated at various temperatures, and were compared with CaA. The amount of adsorption per unit weight of MOR was larger than that of CaA, and that of NaY was smaller than that of CaA. The adsorption isotherms were expressed by sum of two Langmuir equations, and the Langmuir coefficients of H₂ and D₂ were proposed. Furthermore, the Langmuir coefficients of HD, HT, DT and T₂ were estimated by the reduced mass. The correlation between the adsorption properties and the physical parameters of the zeolite were not confirmed.     

低温精馏氢同位素分离技术及其应用

低温精馏是大规模分离氢同位素的有效手段,本文对该工艺涉及的气体纯化、制冷与真空、测量与控制、安全防护等关键技术进行简要介绍。对该工艺在重水生产、重水升级和除氚、聚变堆氘氚燃料循环、武器用氚等领域的国外应用做了回顾。分析了国内对该技术的需求,提出今后开展的研究方向。     

Tests of the cryogenic target for lithium and hydrogen isotopes extraction from the chamber of T-11M tokamak without its venting

T-11M lithium program is focused on a solution of technological issues of a steady-state tokamak with liquid lithium plasma facing components (PFC). Lithium, collected by the chamber wall of such tokamak is able to capture a considerable amount of tritium, which is unacceptable. In order to restrict the level of lithium deposited on the chamber wall and captured tritium it was suggested early to use a cryogenic target technique. Such target placed in the plasma of glow discharge (GDH, He or Ar) during the tokamak conditioning can play the role of collector of lithium and tritium atoms which were sputtered by GD bombardment of the wall. The collected lithium and tritium can be evacuated mechanically together with target from tokamak chamber through vacuum lock without venting. Cryogenic target, cooled by liquid nitrogen (LN), was installed in the T-11M and tested in different modes of wall conditioning and tokamak operations. The maximum speed of the lithium collection during GDH was 3.5 mg/h, that corresponds “to contamination” of wall by lithium during approximately 200 regular shots of T-11M which are equivalent to two-week regular operations. It was established that considerable part of lithium was collected in ionized state. On this basis it can be suggested the creation in tokamak chamber an equivalent ionic pump for extraction both lithium and tritium from chamber without venting during regular tokamak operation.     

Dynamics of liquid sodium pool spreading under sodium fire conditions

The spreading of burning liquid sodium has been investigated using a depth-averaged shallow water equation for isothermal and non-isothermal (burning) conditions. In the latter case, the spreading is one-way coupled with the flame through a separate energy equation for the pool, with appropriate source terms for radiative and conductive heat transfer from the flame, and a sink term (for the continuity equation) to account for loss due to burning. Pool fires on soil and concrete surface have been considered with appropriate friction and heat transfer terms in the momentum and energy equations, respectively. Using this model, numerical simulations have been carried out for a wide range of leak rates, and for a range of burning rates of liquid sodium. Results obtained from the non-isothermal model show that the non-isothermal effects of liquid sodium spreading can safely be neglected for the case or spreading of burning liquid sodium on a typical ground surface such as concrete or soil. Based on these conclusions, dimensionless correlations are proposed for the prediction of spreading parameters such as, equilibrium pool radius, pool formation time, and for mass inventory under pool fire conditions for liquid sodium. These parameters which are obtained from the spreading code can be specified, as input parameters for the existing sodium fire safety codes.     

钛膜中氢同位素的深度分布

为评估氢同位素效应对其在贮氢金属中深度分布的影响,对H/D-Ti、D/T-Ti、D-Ti及T-Ti样品用7.4MeV的4He离子束进行30°方向弹性反冲(ERD)分析.由H/D-Ti样品ERD能谱获得其1.7μm深度的D分布,结合D-Ti样品ERD能谱的～3 μm深度的H、D分布进行了模拟分析.结果表明,H、D含量均随深度增加,其分布曲线基本一致,说明在Ti中H、D的分布互不干涉,样品制备过程中其同位素效应不明显.用同样的方法对DT-Ti样品中的D、T分布进行了模拟分析.结果表明,在1.7 μm深度内D、T的分布基本均匀,但由于D、T的能谱过于靠近,其解谱误差较大.用3.0 MeV的质子对HD-Ti和D-Ti进行的质子背散射(PBS)分析表明,两样品中的D分布趋势一致,证明了Ti中H、D的分布互不干涉,样品制备过程其同位素效应不明显的结论.     

Operating conditions of cascades for separating isotopes

Scientific Research Institute of Stable Isotopes. Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 73, No. 4, pp. 328–331, October, 1992.