Flowing Lithium’s Adsorption and Release Experiment for Deuterium (FLARED)

Liquid lithium has been considered as a plasma facing component (PFC) as it can provide access to low recycling regimes due to its gettering abilities. However, in a low recycling regime, lithium is not only collecting impurity species, but also tritium. It is necessary to recover this tritium due to inventory and cost constraints. The purpose of Flowing Lithium’s Adsorption and Release Experiment for Deuterium (FLARED) is to investigate the uptake and transport of hydrogenic species.

The FLARED project adds an ECR plasma source to the Actively Pumped Open-surface Lithium Loop (APOLLO). This source will generate a Deuterium plasma, creating a flux of deuterium ions and radicals to the flowing liquid lithium Plasma Facing Component (PFC) installed in APOLLO. Through an array of plasma and neutral diagnostics and careful characterization the uptake of deuterium into the lithium can be measured. The Hydrogen Desorption Experiment (HyDE) distillation column will be installed downstream of the lithium PFC. This will allow for thermal treatments of deuterated lithium to separate the deuterium from the lithium. A differentially pumped RGA will be installed at the top of the column to measure the recapture rate of deuterium allowing for a balance of the ‘fuel’ within the system to be determined.  This work is sponsored by Tokomak Energy inc.