Properties of yttrium sorbers which improve tritium sorption rate from liquid lithium

Tritium inventory in and fusion reactor blanket must be kept low (less than a few kg) so that the reactor can supply its own fuel after a reasonable period of operation (i.e., before external sources of tritium are exhausted. To achieve this, the tritium concentration in the breeding material must be kept low, typically <10 ppm. Liquid lithium continues to be one of the most likely tritium breeding materials. Sorption of tritium from lithium by yttrium metal getters has the demonstrated capability for reducing the tritium concentration to >1 ppm at acceptable rates. To evaluate the performance of different yttrium samples, mathematical analysis of the system was developed to determine sorber diffusivity system was developed to determine sorber diffusivities. The purpose of this paper is to outline the mathematical analysis, report results of the analysis for previous sorption experiments, and present predictions of the model