Study on lithium rod test module and irradiation method for tritium production using high temperature gas-cooled reactor

Highlights: • Tritium production using high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) is considered. • An irradiation test on High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) is assumed. • The Li rod suited to the HTTR and produces 30 g of tritium in a year was designed. • The scenario of the irradiation test to confirm the Li rod performance was presented. • Li rod irradiation test to demonstrate the tritium production in the HTGR was proposed. - Abstract: Large quantities of tritium are required to start up fusion reactors and conducts engineering tests using tritium for a fusion blanket system. However, tritium is very rare and kg orders of tritium must be produced artificially. Tritium production, by ⁶Li(n,α)T reaction using a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) has been proposed. This method considers the loading of Li rods into burnable poison holes in the HTGR. In this paper, the Li rod suited for use in the High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) was designed, and tritium production and leakage from Li-rod capsules were evaluated by adjusting the thicknesses of LiAlO₂, alumina, and Zr layers. An irradiation test scenario to be conducted in the HTTR for demonstration of the Li rod's tritium production and containment performance was presented.