Lithium Experimental Application Platform (LEAP): Secondary-Containment Architecture for Flowing Liquid Lithium in Fusion Systems

TL;DR

This paper presents a hazard-based framework for designing secondary containment for flowing liquid lithium in fusion systems, demonstrated through the LEAP platform at PPPL.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-quantitative hazard complexity framework and applies it to design a practical, inert secondary containment architecture for lithium systems.

Findings

Inert, airtight secondary enclosure balances hazard reduction and complexity.

The architecture is deployable for lithium PFC development.

Framework is transferable to other reactive liquid metal systems.

Abstract

Flowing liquid lithium is a promising fusion technology because it can provide a renewable Plasma-Facing Component (PFC) surface, modify recycling, support power exhaust, and potentially connect plasma-facing components with fuel recovery. Its deployment, however, is limited by the need to manage chemical reactivity, fire and aerosol hazards, inert gas operation, maintainability, and rapid experimental iteration. This paper develops a semi-quantitative hazard complexity framework for selecting secondary containment architectures for flowing liquid lithium systems. The framework is applied to six representative containment scenarios and to the Lithium Experimental Application Platform (LEAP) at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. LEAP is under construction with a modular, room-scale argon gloveroom as an inert secondary containment boundary for a staged flowing lithium program with heating, diagnostics, magnetic field exposure, and future device interface capability. The analysis shows that an inert, airtight secondary enclosure without scrubbers around a liquid lithium loop provides a practical balance between hazard reduction and facility complexity, as defined by the design requirements. The resulting architecture offers a deployable path for lithium PFC development and a transferable design logic for other reactive or conductive liquid metal systems.