Lithium Isotope Enrichment Effects in Liquid Metal/Chloride Molten Salt System

The operation of fusion reactors requires the development of a ⁶Li enrichment process that does not have a negative impact on the environment. This study focuses on a new two-liquid-phase chemical exchange system, liquid-metal/chloride molten salt system. In this system, ⁶Li is distributed unevenly between immiscible liquid metal and chloride molten salt. After two-liquid contacting mixing, a quadrupole inductively coupled plasma spectrometry measurement was performed. The measured isotope ratio of ⁶Li to ⁷Li was corrected with mass bias compensation, and separation factor α was obtained. In both systems (Li/LiCl-KCl system, and Li-Pb/LiCl-KCl system), the α values were greater than 1 at 648 K almost at a 68% confidence interval, showing that more ⁶Li was likely distributed to liquid metal than to chloride molten salt. These results suggest that this system is applicable to enrich ⁶Li under optimal temperature conditions.