Mass fabrication development of Li2TiO3 pebbles with automatic dropping system

Lithium titanate (Li2TiO3) has attracted the attention of many researchers from a point of good tritium recovery at low temperature, high chemical stability, etc. As the shape of Li2TiO3, a small pebble was selected in Japanese design of fusion blanket. On the other hand, the wet process is the most advantageous as the fabrication method of Li2TiO3 pebbles from a view point of mass production, etc. The basic fabrication process of Li2TiO3 pebbles by the wet process was established and automatic dropping system for mass production was developed. In this study, fabrication tests and characterization of Li2TiO3 pebbles fabricated by this system were performed. From these results excellent prospects were obtained concerning mass fabrication of Li2TiO3 pebbles by the wet process with this system. (authors)