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last mo.

Researchers Develop Mercury-Free Method for Producing Lithium-6, Key to Fusion Energy

The new process, discovered during groundwater cleanup research, offers a safer and scalable alternative to the banned COLEX method.

The US lithium-6 supply, stored at ORNL, has been decreasing since 1963.
©NASA Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres and Yohkoh Legacy data Archive.
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Overview

  • Scientists at Texas A&M University and ETH Zürich have created a mercury-free method to isolate lithium-6 using zeta-vanadium oxide (zeta-V2O5).
  • The method enriches lithium-6 by 5.7% per cycle and can achieve fusion-grade enrichment levels (30%) after 25 cycles.
  • Lithium-6 is essential for breeding tritium, a critical fuel for nuclear fusion reactors, but U.S. production has been halted since 1963 due to environmental concerns with the COLEX process.
  • The discovery was made accidentally while developing membranes for cleaning groundwater contaminated during oil and gas extraction.
  • Efforts are now underway to scale the method for industrial production, addressing a major supply chain bottleneck for nuclear fusion energy.