Trial fabrication of tritium breeders for fusion blanket with lithium recovered from seawater

Lithium ceramics have been considered as one of the candidates for the fabrication of tritium breeders for fusion reactors. As a part of the study program for fusion blanket development, fabrication techniques for tritium breeders which are made of lithium ceramics have been investigated and the characteristics of tritium breeders fabricated by several fabrication methods are estimated. On the other hand, lithium deposits in ore are very poor in Japan. Hence, lithium recovered from seawater should be effectively utilized for tritium breeders. In this study, γ-LiAlO2 pellets were fabricated by solid–solid reactions between Al2O3 and Li2CO3 recovered from seawater or ore, and the characteristics of two kinds of γ-LiAlO2 mentioned above, i.e. fabrication, physical and thermal properties, were estimated.