The Effect of Solutes on Thermodynamic Activity of Tritium in Liquid Lithium Blanket of Fusion Reactor

The study of tritium dissolved in liquid lithium systems containing metallic impurities is of technological interest for tritium removal processes and suppression of the tritium leakages from the blanket in a fusion reactor. The interaction parameter formalism and coordination cluster theory have been used to calculate the tritium activity coefficients in Li-T-Al, Li-T-Mg, Li-T-Si, Li-T-Y and Li-T-La systems. Calculations performed demonstrated that silicon, aluminium and magnesium have no influence on the tritium activity coefficients in dilute lithium solutions within the temperature range 400–800°C, but yttrium and lanthanum may be used to effectively decrease this coefficient in lithium melts.