Atomic fusion fuel could be made greener with a new way of delivering lithium

Unlimited power from nuclear fusion can be one step closer to the unintended discovery of a new process to deliver isotope lithium-6, which is important to provide fuel for a sustainable fusion reactor.

The least challenging fusion process involves combining two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium to provide helium, a neutron and a lot of energy. Tritium, a rare, radioactive isotope of hydrogen, is difficult and expensive to the source. “Breeder” reactors try to produce tritium by bombing lithium with neutrons.

Lithium atoms are found as two stable isotopes: lithium-7 make up 92.5 percent of the element of nature and the rest is lithium-6. The rarer isotope reacts much more effectively with neutrons to produce tritium in a fusion reaction.

However, the two lithium isotopes are extremely difficult to separate. Until now, this is only achieved on a large scale using a very toxic process that connects Merkur. Due to the environmental impact, this process has not been used in the Western country since the 1960s, and scientists are forced to rely on dwindling stocks of lithium-6 produced before the ban.

Sarbajit Banerjee in Eth Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues have now discovered an alternative method of serendipithed while looking at ways to clean water that was contaminated by oil drilling.

The researchers note that cement membranes, the used, containing a lab-made compound called Zeta Vanadium oxide, collected large amounts of lithium and did not appear to isolate lithium-6.

Zeta vanadium oxide contains tunnels surrounded by oxygen atoms, says Banerjee. “Lithium ions move through these tunnels, which happen to be the right size [to bind lithium-6]”He says.”

Researchers do not fully understand that lithium-6 is preferably preserved, but based on simulations they believe it has been with the interaction between the ions and the atoms at the edges of the tunnels, says Banerjee.

He says they have only isolated less than a gram of lithium-6 so far, but they hope to scale up the process so that it can produce tens of thousands of kg of isotope. A commercial fusion reactor is expected to need tons of the element every day.

“However, these challenges pale in comparison with the major challenges with plasma makers and laser anthitis for fusion,” says Banerjee.