Trial pebble fabrication of LiTiO and LiSiO two-phase mixture by emulsion method

Hoshino, Tsuyoshi; Suzuki, Tatsuya; Sekiya, Makiko; Kolb, M.*; Knitter, R.*

no journal, , 

Demonstration power plant reactors require advanced tritium breeders with high thermal stability. For the mass production of advanced tritium breeder pebbles, pebble fabrication by the emulsion method is a promising technique. To increase crush load of LiSiO pebble, trial pebble fabrication of LiTiO and LiSiO two-phase mixture by emulsion method was implemented. A prior pebble fabrication process consisted of the preparation of raw materials followed by granulation. The improvement process integrates the preparation and granulation of raw materials. The slurry for the emulsion granulation of LiTiO and LiSiO as a tritium breeder consists of mixtures of LiTiO, LiSiO and LiCO at specific ratios. Subsequently, gel spheres of tritium breeders are fabricated by controlling the relative flow speeds of slurry and oil. The crush load of the obtained sintered LiTiO and LiSiO pebbles were 51-61 N.