Reprocessing of lithium titanate pebbles by graphite bed method

Lithium titanate enriched by 6Li isotope is considered as a candidate of tritium breeding materials for fusion reactors due to its excellent performance. The reuse of burned Li2TiO3 pebbles is an important issue because of the high costs of 6Li-enriched materials and waste considerations. For this purpose, reprocessing of Li2TiO3 pebbles by graphite bed method was developed. Simulative Li2TiO3 pebbles with low-lithium content according to the expected lithium burn-up were fabricated. After that, Li2TiO3 pebbles were re-fabricated with lithium carbonate as lithium additives, in order to gain the composition of lithium titanate with a Li/Ti ratio of 2. The process was optimized to obtain reprocessed Li2TiO3 pebbles that were suitable for reuse as ceramic breeder. Density, porosity, grain size and crushing load of the reprocessed pebbles were characterized. This process did not deteriorate the properties of the reprocessed pebbles and was almost no waste generation.