Nuclear fusion lithium

Tritium is produced in heavy-water-moderated reactors and sometimes must be separated isotopicaHy from hydrogen and deuterium for disposal. Ultimately, the tritium could be used as fuel in thermonuclear reactors (see Fusionenergy). Nuclear fusion reactions that involve tritium occur at the lowest known temperatures for such reactions. One possible reaction using deuterium produces neutrons that can be used to react with a lithium blanket to breed more tritium. 

The confinement region in which nuclear fusion proceeds is surrounded by a blanket in which the neutrons produced by the fusion reaction are captured to produce tritium. Because of its favorable cross section for neutron capture, lithium is the favored blanket material. Various lithium blanket... 

Energy sources and conversion— biomass, batteries, fuel celts and fuel cell technology, hydrogen as a fuel, liquid and gaseous fuels from coal, oil shale, tar sands, nuclear fission and fusion, lithium lor thermonuclear reactors, insulating materials, and solar energy. 

Nuclear fusion reactions involve combinations of nuclei. The fusion reaction of the hydrogen bomb involves the fusing of deuterium, jH, in lithium deuteride, Li H ... 

A nuclear application of lithium is in thermonuclear weapons and fusion research. In a weapon or fusion reactor, nuclear fusion occurs between two isotopes of hydrogen—deuterium and tritium. Deuterium occurs naturally and has an abundant supply in the worlds oceans (it is present in about 0.015 percent of water molecules). Tritium, on the other hand, is radioactive, has a relatively short half-life, and does not occur naturally. Tritium can be manufactured, however, by bombarding lithium 6 with neutrons. 

USE Used extensively IP small amts as tracer in the establishment of rates and kinetics of chemical reactions/ Wiberg, Chem. Revs 55, 713-743 (1955). The hydrogen bomb contains Lithium deuteride (LiD) as explosive and plutonium following reaction sequence takes place (nuclear fusion) Li + D —... 

The transport of alkali and alkaline earth metal cations by many crown ethers and their derivatives has been extensively studied. Much effort has been paid to increase their selectivity as well as their efficiency. Making highly Li selective ionophores is a primary concern in this field, because large quantities of lithium could be extracted from sea water for use to nuclear fusion generators... 

The application of lithium has been widened by the development of nuclear fusion as an energy generating process. The fusion reaction — the technical realization of... 

Fuels for (nuclear) fusion reactors Deuterium-2 (which occurs in water as HDO or D2O) and Li-6, which constitutes about 7.4% of naturally occurring lithium. 

On March 23, 1989, the University of Utah held a press conference that shook the energy world. Electrochemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced reproducible cold fusion 10% more energy released than supplied. They passed an electric current through palladium and platinum wires in a container of heavy water and lithium sulfate. Cold fusion is nuclear fusion at ambient temperature. When the two hydrogen atoms in a water molecule are replaced with deuterium (called heavy hydrogen because it has one proton and one neutron), it is called heavy water. 

Although all current power reactors use the fission process to generate electricity, research is being conducted on nuclear fusion. In this process, hydrogen (or deuterium and lithium) atoms are fused, which creates energy and a helium atom. This process has the advantage of more readily available fuel, such as hydrogen from water, and less radioactive waste because fission products are not created. However, tritium would be a by-product, and marty materials used in the reactor would be activated to create additional radioactivity. 

At the present stage of controlled nuclear fusion experiments, exclusively light elements (isotopes of hydrogen, helium, boron, and lithium) are considered as possible fuel candidates for a future fusion power station this chapter, therefore, deals only with fusion reactions between light elements. Moreover, this chapter is devoted only to the basics of physics, the technological aspects of the field being covered by Chap. 60 of Vol. 5. 

The future of bthium development is closely bnked with the development of bghtweight lithium aluminum alloys, the use of bthium metal anodes in secondary batteries for both automotive and stationary appbcations, and finaUy nuclear fusion technology. 

When the universe was only a few minutes old, the temperature and density were high enough for nuclear fusion reaction to take place (Fig. 8.3). The formation of elements and isotopes, such as deuterium, isotopes of He, lithium, beryllium and boron, the Big Bang nucleosynthesis, is another indication for a hot Big Bang. The Big Bang theory predicts that in the early universe 24% He was produced. This was in the form of the stable He isotope (there are several reviews on that topic e.g. Olive, 1999 [253]). It is interesting to note that the production of this element is not strongly dependent on the density of matter in the universe. By density we mean here the value for the today s universe. Between the interval of density of matter from 10 to 10 kgm the " He abundance remains very close to the value of 24%. 

The advantages of fusion over fission could be enormous. Since deuterium constitutes about one in every 65(X) H atoms, the oceans of the world can supply an almost limitless amoimt of nuclear fuel. It is estimated that there is sufficient lithium on Earth to provide a source of tritium for about 1 million years. Also, nuclear fusion would not pose the vexing problems of radioactive waste storage and disposal associated with nuclear fission. 

Deuterium occurs naturally, mixed m with plain hydrogen in the tiny proportion of 0.015 percent in other words, plain hydrogen is the more common isotope by a factor of 6,600. Tritium for fusion energy can be created from another nuclear process involving the interaction of the neutron (in the equation above) with lithium ... 

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