Henry constant of helium in liquid lead-lithium alloys

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics and classical perturbation methods to calculate helium solubility in lead and lead-lithium alloys, crucial for nuclear fusion reactor design and helium bubble prevention.

Contribution

It provides detailed computational analysis of helium solubility in lead-lithium alloys, including temperature dependence and eutectic composition insights.

Findings

Helium solubility in lithium is lower than in lead.

At 508 K, helium solubility in eutectic alloy is approximately 5×10^{-16} Pa^{-1}.

Helium solubility increases with temperature.

Abstract

The solubility of helium in liquid metals is a knowledge of fundamental importance in the design of the future nuclear fusion reactors, since the formation of helium bubbles inside the breeding blankets of the reactors can be a threat to the durability of the devices and, more importantly, to the efficiency of tritium recovery. In the present work we report a detailed set of calculations of the solubility of helium in lead and lead-lithium alloys. A series of molecular dynamics simulations have been combined with a classical perturbative procedure able to compute the free energy of insertion of a helium atom inside a liquid metal bath, directly related to the solubility of helium. As the most important case, the concentration of the eutectic solution has been explored in full detail. We have found that solubility of helium in pure lithium is lower than in pure lead, predicting a value at the eutectic state (16% Li-84% Pb at 508 K) of about $5 \times 10^{-16}$ Pa$^{-1}$. The observed trend indicates that solubilties rise with increasing temperatures.