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The authors are indebted to Ms. M. Martin for her help in the prep-aration of the samples, and to Mr. F. J. Valle and Mr. F. M. Jime nez for their technical assistance. This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium, funded by the European Union via the Euratom Research and Training Programme (Grant Agreement No 101052200-EUROfusion) . Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author (s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them. The research used UKAEA's Materials Research Facility, which has been funded by and is part of the UK's National Nuclear User Facility and Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials. The authors acknowledge the support from The Centro de Microanalisis de Materiales (CMAM) -Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, for the beam time proposals with codes STD044/21, STD006/22 and STD009/22, and its technical staff for their contribution to the operation of the accelerator.

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Exploring the role of lithium in Al2O3 tritium permeation barrier development: A crucial challenge for fusion reactor progress

Publicat a:Journal Of Nuclear Materials. 602 155354- - 2024-12-15 602(), DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2024.155354

Autors: Carella, E; de la Cuerda-Velázquez, G; Angiolini, M; González-Arrabal, R; Bulla, A; Palermo, I; Di Fonzo, F; Sanchez, F; London, AJ; Hernández, T; Moroño, A; Stinchelli, A; Moody, M; Spagnuolo, GA

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The development and application of robust tritium permeation barriers (TPBs) are crucial for a safe and economical fusion reactor operation because tritium permeation could cause serious safety problems, such as the brittleness of the structural material, fuel loss, and radioactive contamination. Coatings may effectively inhibit the permeation through the structural materials of tritium fuel generated inside the breeding blanket (BB) reducing the loss of lithium inventory contamination of the ancillary systems and the exposure of workers and the population. Al2O3 has been preliminary selected as the EU candidate for tritium permeation reduction of structural steels in the Water-cooled lithium-lead breeding blank (WCLL) concept, because of its very high permeation reduced factor (PRF). However, because of the chemical reactivity of lithium, several authors report the formation of Lithium aluminates after exposure to PbLi baths, based on different experimental techniques. In this contribution, we will show recent results about the quantification of the extent of the reaction and the thickness of the reacted layer and discuss the possible effects, that may happen under neutron irradiation based on the species produced (T and He) in the nuclear reactions (n, T) and (n, alpha) with Li-6 and Li-7, with the Li atoms in the reacted layer To do that, the atomic density of produced T and He per second out of the transmutation reaction and the He/T ratio are calculated for diverse Li contents. Subsequently, we implant He into the coatings and characterize the desorption rate and the morphology. Finally, discussion and recommendations for further coating development will be presented.

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