Fabrication and Characterization of 6Li Enriched Li₂TiO₃ Pebbles by Wet Process

Abstract

Lithium titanate (Li₂TiO₃) pebbles are considered to be the candidate material of the tritium breeders for fusion reactor from viewpoints of good tritium recovery, chemical stability, etc. As a part of the fusion blanket development, an irradiation test of Li₂TiO₃ pebbles will be performed in the testing reactor. In the present study, the fabrication test of ⁶Li enriched Li₂TiO₃ pebbles was carried out for this irradiation test by the wet process. Using the results of fabrication test, various TiO₂ doped and undoped Li₂TiO₃ pebbles (1 mm diameter) were developed with nearly the same microstructure (density, grain size in the region of 5μm, porosity). Sphericity of the Li₂TiO₃ pebbles, which is the ratio of the longest diameter to the shortest diameter, was less than 1.1. Chemical and mechanical properties such as hydrogen reduction rate and collapse strength were evaluated.