Current status of the technology development on lithium safety handling under IFMIF/EVEDA

Furukawa, Tomohiro  ; Hirakawa, Yasushi ; Kato, Shoichi ; Iijima, Minoru; Otaka, Masahiko; Kondo, Hiroo; Kanemura, Takuji; Wakai, Eiichi  

For the irradiation test of the candidate materials for the fusion DEMO reactor, Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities (EVEDA) of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) are performed under the Broader Approach Activities. As a major Japanese activity on the target facility of the IFMIF, the engineering validation using the EVEDA Lithium Test Loop which is the largest scale liquid lithium test loop has been started in 2012. In parallel with the design and fabrication, the research on the technology establishment for the lithium safety handling was started in 2008, as one of the related technologies under the IFMIF-EVEDA. In the research, experiments of lithium chemical reaction, experiments on lithium fire, establishment of chemical analysis of impurities in lithium and experiments on advanced lithium leak detection system were carried out. This paper describes the results of these experiments.