September 10, 2025
EX-Fusion America and Idaho National Laboratory will investigate how lead-lithium (PbLi)
purity affects tritium transport properties to advance the development of tritium breeding
blankets and extraction systems for fusion reactors. While PbLi is a leading breeder
material that combines tritium breeding and neutron multiplication in a single medium,
there is significant uncertainty in tritium solubility data that hinders extraction system
design. The project will systematically study how lithium depletion and impurities influence
tritium behavior by testing various PbLi samples with varying compositions in INL’s
specialized tritium permeation apparatus. High-fidelity modeling using MOOSE/TMAP8 will
complement the experiments to quantify relationships between PbLi chemistry and tritium
transport. The results will help standardize specifications for commercial-scale PbLi
production while accelerating blanket technology development.