Projects & Programs
Lithium Aluminate Material Development
Lithium Aluminate Pellets Used in Commercial Nuclear Reactors for the Production of Tritium
- worked with commercial vendors and universities to develop a powder synthesis method that produced flowable powder and enabled the automated processing necessary to produce production quantities of lithium aluminate pellets
- worked with manufacturers to develop the commercial powder and pellet manufacturing capabilities necessary to produce over 1,000,000 one-inch pellets
- worked with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to develop production viable analytical chemistry methods to characterize the Li-6 loading in the final pellets. Successfully transferred these methods and qualified two separate laboratories for production measurements.
- helped establish the Materials Control and Accountability (MC&A) protocols necessary to manage the accountable quantities of Li-6 enriched lithium materials used in the manufacture of these pellets
- continue to develop unique lithium aluminate ceramics and lithium aluminate/zirconium cermet test specimens to use in Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) experiments designed to further the understanding of how pellets produce and release tritium during irradiation.
Commercial lithium aluminate pellet production line used to produce 1,000,000 one-inch pellets
Commercial spray drier used to synthesize lithium aluminate powder for pellet production