Preliminary fabrication of small Li/sub 2/O spheres by sol-gel method

Lithium oxide (Li/sub 2/O) is one of the best tritium breeding materials. And as the shape of Li/sub 2/O, a small sphere is proposed in Japanese design of fusion blanket. Recently, reprocessing technology development on irradiated ceramic tritium breeders is conducted from the view point of effective use of resources and decreases or radioactive waste. The sol-gel method is most advantageous for fabricating small Li/sub 2/O spheres from the reprocessing solution with lithium. And the fabrication work, preliminary fabrication tests of small Li/sub 2/O spheres is carried out by the sol-gel method, and there are bright prospects for fabrication of small Li/sub 2/O spheres by sol-gel method.