Status of Research on Lithium-6 Enrichment and Development of New Technology Using Ionic Conductor

The status of research on the lithium-6 separation method using the lithium-ion separation method by the ionic conductor (LiSMIC) is reported. We describe the advantages of the LiSMIC compared to past methods, then give an outline of the method, and the results of single-stage lithium-6 separation experiments. In particular, the latest findings on the effect of the waveform of the applied voltage are presented. Though the square-voltage waveform that gives high isotope separation was shown to lower lithium extraction speed than the continuous voltages, we show that increasing the voltage application time in the square-voltage waveform can make the lithium extraction faster with little effect on the lithium-6 separation. We discuss the scale of the facility required to enrich lithium-6 to 90% based on the data obtained from these experiments and cascade theory. Our analysis reveals that the square-wave voltage gives the minimal facility scale due to the high separation factor despite the slower Li extraction speed. Improving the Li extraction speed can reduce the scale also in the case of other voltages.