Fabrication development of Li2O pebbles by wet process

Lithium oxide (Li2O) is one of the best tritium breeding materials. A small sphere of Li2O is proposed in some designs of fusion blankets. Recently, reprocessing technology on irradiated ceramic tritium breeders was developed from the viewpoint of effective use of resources and reduction of radioactive wastes. The wet process is advantageous for fabricating small Li2O pebbles from the reprocessed lithium-bearing solutions. Preliminary fabrication tests of Li2O pebbles by the wet process were carried out. However, the density of the pebbles obtained was only 55%. Therefore, process improvement tests were performed in order to increase the density of Li2O pebbles fabricated by this method. The improved process yielded Li2O pebbles in the target range of 80-85% T.D. (orig.)