Lancaster project to develop breeder materials for fusion

The funding is part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)’s £200m Lithium Breeding Tritium Innovation (LIBRTI) programme.

Fusion power plants will rely on hydrogen isotopes deuterium (which can be extracted from seawater), and tritium (which is rare on Earth) to produce energy.

To address this scarcity, tritium must be produced (or ‘bred’) in a lithium-containing blanket that surrounds the fusion reaction. The LIBRTI programme aims to demonstrate controlled tritium breeding, which will be a critical step for future fusion power plants.

MORE FROM NUCLEAR

UKAEA is funding 12 small-scale tritium breeding and digital simulation experiments including Lancaster’s Tritium Breeder (TriBreed) project, which is a collaboration with Oxford University and Kyoto Fusioneering.

TriBreed will design and fabricate a simple, reusable tritium breeding experiment that will demonstrate the ability to accurately predict the amount produced in banket designs. It will utilise advanced octalithium ceramic breeder materials and enable the demonstration of their breeding potential.