In a complex and rapidly evolving technological, socio-economic and geopolitical landscape that is focused on a global “sustainable energy transition,” increased electromobility based on lithium batteries is often stated as a key objective. However, unbeknownst to the public, policy makers and most researchers alike, lithium in its enriched isotopic forms (⁶Li and ⁷Li) holds tremendous added value beyond its use in batteries. This is especially true in both present and future nuclear technologies.

For those countries with large lithium reserves that are being prospected for rapid lithium exploitation in order to fuel the growing global electromobility sector, it is important to be aware of these added value uses when considering plans for expanding lithium extraction (plans that also hold negative environmental externalities, such as prodigious water use and contamination). Argentina – which has an established nuclear energy and research sector, as well as a current administration that seems committed to rapidly depleting the national lithium reserves – serves as a strong and dynamic case study for the importance of crafting long-term, science-based and sustainable policies around the exploitation and isotopic separation of lithium.

Argentina owns almost a third of the lithium reserves in South America which, together with those of Chile and Bolivia, represent more than half of the world’s lithium availability. Battery-grade lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃) is produced from the Puna brines in the Andes of Northwestern Argentina – it is exported and only a small fraction remains in Argentina as royalties (around 3%) and the declared profits of the mining companies. 

This article analyzes the use of lithium isotopes (⁶Li and ⁷Li) in fission and fusion nuclear reactors and in nuclear technology devices, such as scintillation plates, neutron detectors and shields. These uses of lithium in nuclear technologies have the potential to add value to Argentina’s limited lithium reserves at a magnitude far greater than what is obtained by exporting lithium to international battery manufacturers, without significantly compromising the reserves. 

The Cosmic Origins and Terrestrial Presence of Lithium

Lithium is the lightest and oldest metal in the Universe. According to the BBN (Big Bang Nucleosynthesis) theory, lithium began to form within the first 100 to 300 seconds after the Big Bang along with light nuclei (H, He). At this point in cosmological time the primordial plasma had cooled enough for protons and neutrons to join together and form stable nuclei. 

However, there exists a discrepancy between the abundance of the isotope ⁷Li in the Universe predicted by the BBN and that observed experimentally. This controversy between theory and experimental data remains one of the most important problems to be solved in Cosmology.

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On Earth, lithium was discovered in 1817 by the Swedish chemist August Arfwedson from the mineral petalite (LiAlSi₄O₁₀). It was the first of the alkaline metals to be discovered in the mineral kingdom and from there it derived its name (from the Greek “litheion”, which means “stony”). 

Lithium is not very abundant in the Earth’s crust. It is found in rocks (mainly in spodumene, LiAl(SiO₃)₂), where reserves are estimated at over 6 MTon, with lithium concentrations between 28 and 33 g/kg, and in the high Andean salt flats of the “Lithium Triangle” of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, where reserves reach 13 MTon (with total resources at over 56 MTon), with concentrations between 0.28 and 3 g/kg (see Table 1). 99.99% of lithium resources are actually in the sea (230,000 MTon), but the low concentration (0.14-0.25 mg/kg) makes its extraction, to date, very expensive and impractical.

Ten years ago, the main use of lithium was the manufacture of glass/ceramics and batteries in proportions close to 30% each. However, by 2023, 87% of lithium was used in the manufacture of Li-ion batteries (Figure 1), a trend driven principally by the rise of electromobility, especially in China, Germany and the United States. The main input for this use is battery grade lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃), whose main producers are Australia, Chile, China and Argentina, as can be seen in Table 1.

The presence of lithium in the Argentine Puna salt flats of Northwest Argentina – which is part of the Lithium Triangle that extends into Northeast Chile and Southern Bolivia – was discovered by the Argentine chemist Luciano Catalano in a campaign carried out between 1923 and 1927. Later, as Undersecretary of Mining in the government of Arturo Illia, Catalano warned about “the extraordinary critical material nature of lithium in national defense, which requires healthy and obligatory state action for its care and preservation” . This assessment was based on knowledge beginning to be acquired at the time of lithium’s potential uses in nuclear technologies.

Little has been done in Argentina to acknowledge the important role of Lithium in national defense and nuclear technologies, though it has been in Bolivia and Chile. For example, the Organic Law of the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission (CChEN) of 1976 dictated the first legal regulations on lithium and included lithium as a “substance of nuclear interest.” Based on this law, in 2008 the CChEN did not agree to the request of the SQM to increase its production of lithium carbonate from 180,100 tons to one million tons. 

This situation contrasts with that of Argentina, where the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) has no influence whatsoever on this strategic element. This despite the fact that Law No. 24,804 on nuclear activity (2/4/1997) indicates that CNEA will be in charge of prospecting for minerals for nuclear use, and the development of materials and manufacturing processes for the application of fuel elements in advanced nuclear cycles.

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The volatility of the lithium market is influenced by geopolitical conditions and regulations, which can alter demand dynamics, and also by the introduction of new extraction techniques.

Figure 2 shows the evolution of the price of battery-grade Li₂CO₃ since 2018. A strong increase can be observed from the beginning of 2021 until the end of 2022, where it reached the record price of US$ 95/kg. This rise in price was due to the pandemic-era’s supply chain crunch when lithium demand for batteries far outstripped production of necessary materials. Since the beginning of 2023 prices have mostly declined, reaching US$ 17/kg in July 2024. This is mostly because investment in lithium production is growing at a rapid pace, and also because growth of electric vehicle sales in China has slowed. 

It is important to highlight that the incidence of lithium in relation to the total cost of a conventional Li-ion battery is between 4% and 10%, depending on the type of battery. So, the relative advantage of having abundant lithium resources in Argentina and other countries does not mean a significant relative advantage when competing with battery manufacturers from China, the United States, Europe or South Korea. Moreover, tax collection from lithium mining in Argentina is almost five times lower per ton of lithium carbonate exported compared to that of Chile, and does not currently contribute appreciably to Argentina’s GDP.

An electric car such as that of Tesla (the best-selling EV on the market) has batteries with a capacity close to 70 kWh that contain a total of 63 kg of Li (335 kg of Li₂CO₃). The electric vehicle market projections for 2030 are 200 million units, demanding more than 2.4 MTon of lithium, equivalent to around 64% of current Argentina’s reserves. This exponential increase in the electromobility market would mean that in a few years, extraction in the Lithium Triangle could significantly reduce reserves. This would especially be the case if the standard evaporative extraction methods – which consume between 5 and 50 m³ of freshwater per ton of Li₂CO₃ and require 12 to 18 months of time – are replaced by direct lithium extraction methods (such as those recently introduced by Eramet (France), which has the perpetual concession of the Centenario salt flat in Salta (Argentina) where a Li₂CO₃ production of 75.000 Ton/year is projected). Battery manufacturers, meanwhile, can recycle their most valuable components (Li, Co, Mn, Cu, etc.) while Argentina exhausts its economically viable reserves in a relatively short period of time.

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It is from this perspective that the use of lithium in nuclear technologies – especially in a nuclear country like Argentina – is of special interest. The added value of lithium in nuclear technologies is much greater than its use in batteries. Furthermore, if lithium was prioritized for nuclear technologies, local reserves would not be compromised in the short or medium term like they are for use in batteries.

The Isotopes of Lithium in Nuclear Technology

In nuclear technology, lithium and lithium salts are used in insignificant quantities when compared to their use in batteries, but they have enormous added value. Lithium has two stable isotopes: 

• ⁷Li with an abundance of 92.58% is transparent to neutrons, with a neutron absorption cross section of 0.045 barns (1 barn = 10^-24 m²)
• ⁶Li is present in a proportion of 7.42% and is opaque to neutrons, with an effective neutron absorption section of 940 barns, corresponding to the nuclear reaction:

                    ⁶Li + n → ³H + ⁴He + 4,78 MeV

This difference (between isotopes in relation to neutron absorption) determines their uses in nuclear technology. Lithium enriched in ⁷Li to levels greater than 99.95% is used in the form of ⁷LiOH as an alkalizing agent to increase the pH (for minimizing corrosion) in the primary circuit (moderator and coolant) in pressurized water type nuclear power plants (PWR), such as those that operate in Argentina. PWR’s generated around 50% of the 2,602 TWh of nuclear electricity produced globally 2023. 

The use of natural LiOH (containing ⁶Li) is not possible because it produces tritium (half-life: 12.3 years) by the above-mentioned reaction and increases nuclear fuel consumption. Instead, ⁷LiOH does not generate radioactive products by neutron activation (as is the case with NaOH or KOH) and its price with that high degree of enrichment is around USD 2,000/kg.

In addition, ⁷Li enriched to 99.995% will be used as a coolant in fourth-generation molten salt cooled nuclear reactors (MSCR) in the form of a ⁷LiF + BeF₂ eutectic. MSCRs are expected to be able to operate at much higher temperatures (more than 700°C) than currently operational reactors, while achieving efficiencies beyond 40%. In this case there is a much greater consumption of lithium, and the price will exceed USD 15,000/kg due to the higher degree of enrichment. 

These advanced fourth-generation MSCRs, as well as PWRs, are good candidates for the deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which have a power capacity ranging from 30 MW up to 300 MW (electric). SMRs can be sited on locations not suitable for larger nuclear power plants, can replace coal-fired and other fossil fuel plants, and can even be a base-load power source for off-grid or micro-grid networks. They are more affordable to build than large nuclear power reactors since they offer savings in cost and construction time, are intrinsically safer, and can be deployed incrementally or in series to match increasing energy demand. Two 35 MW SMRs began commercial operation in May 2020 in Russia while other SMRs are under construction (or in the licensing phase) in Argentina, Canada, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States of America.

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⁶Li is used as shielding, in neutron sensors and in the construction of scintillator plates for neutron imaging and tomography, such as those that will be used in the Argentine Neutron Beam Laboratory (LAHN), whose operation will begin in 2025. The LAHN will use neutrons from the RA10 multipurpose experimental reactor that the CNEA is building at the Ezeiza Atomic Center. These applications constitute a possible future demand for ⁶Li salts, with huge added value.

⁶Li will also be used in future fusion reactors that are based on the nuclear fusion reaction between deuterium (²H) and tritium (³H), the heavy isotopes of hydrogen:

²H + ³H → ⁴He (3.6 MeV) + n (14 MeV)

with the formation of helium and a neutron. This is the same reaction that occurs in the Sun, releasing prodigious amounts of energy without producing radioactive waste.

While deuterium is abundant in nature (there are 0.033 grams of ²H in each liter of water), tritium is extremely scarce in nature (0.00001% in water). Tritium is produced in limited quantities in fission reactors by the neutron capture of deuterium atoms (predominantly in PWRs running with heavy water, though also in small amounts in PWRs cooled with ordinary water), however not enough is produced to feed a prototype fusion reactor. Tritium would be much more abundantly produced in situ at a fusion reactor site, through the previously described reaction of neutron capture by ⁶Li. In this way, ⁶Li is indirectly converted into nuclear fuel that is then consumed in the process.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, developed by the United States, European Union, China, India, Japan, South Korea and Russia, aims to build a fusion reactor with a power of 500 MW. It also aims to demonstrate the integral and sustainable operation of fusion technology using ⁶Li as fuel. ITER will then give way to the DEMO project, a commercial fusion reactor with 1.5 GW of power.

The ITER fusion reactor has been under construction since 2007 in Cadarache (France) and is already in an advanced stage of construction. Though originally planned for 2035, ITER has recently announced a delay for producing the first ²H + ³H plasma at 150 million Kelvin (the temperature necessary for the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei to occur). Said plasma can only be confined magnetically, so the heart of the reactor is the toroid (“Tokamak”) through which the plasma circulates. On the walls of the torus are the tritium-reproducing “blankets” where the ⁶Li compound is located, which when bombarded by neutrons generates the tritium that fuels the fusion, as seen in Figure 3.

The blanket material can be a 16Li-84 Pb eutectic mixture containing 0.64% of ⁶Li or ⁶Li₄SiO₄ or solid Li₂TiO₃, in both cases enriched to 90% ⁶Li. The ITER reactor requires 35 kg of ³H/year, which is equivalent to 70 kg of ⁶Li, while the DEMO reactor, whose operation is estimated to begin in 2048, will require a load of 39,000 kg of ⁶Li and an annual consumption of 168 kg ⁶Li in order to generate 1.5 GW of power. To get an idea of how much lithium would be necessary to power a future world with fusion reactors, let’s take the current global energy demand, 8000 GW, as a baseline. That would require approximately 64,000 Ton/year of Li₂CO₃ – that is only 3% of Argentina’s lithium reserves.  

The Market and Added Value for Lithium Isotopes

What is the added value to lithium in these nuclear technology applications?

In the case of ⁷LiOH, consumption in Argentina would be very low, but the potential international demand is interesting to consider within a complex geopolitical landscape. The 65 pressurized water reactors (PWR) operating in the US consume around 300 kg of ⁷LiOH, while global consumption is estimated at around one ton. Until recently 70% of the ⁷Li used in the world was produced in Siberia by the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant NCCP and the rest was produced in China. The manufacturing process is based on the exchange of aqueous LiCl and lithium amalgam generated by electrolysis. 

This dependence on external suppliers and the low stock of ⁷LiOH in the US was long a cause for concern], although ⁷LiOH for nuclear uses is nowadays commercialized by 3M (USA) and NUKEM (Germany). The price of ⁷LiOH could become higher in the coming years, especially if the isotopic separation is carried out by environmentally sustainable methods that do not use mercury. 

In the case of ⁶Li, it is not easy to estimate a future market value for its eventual use as a blanket and tritium producer in fusion reactors, although some estimates place it at around USD 500,000/kg.

A current use of ⁶Li, however, is the detection of cold and thermal neutrons, which has mainly been carried out with proportional counters of ³He, an isotope obtained from the radioactive decay of tritium. The growing demand for ³He as an input for detectors in security systems has caused a decrease in the availability of this lithium isotope, which has increased its cost while encouraging the development of new technologies, including ⁶Li-based scintillators.

⁶Li-based scintillators use ⁶LiF as a neutron capturer which, as shown above, leads to the emission of high-energy alpha particles (⁴He²⁺). The alpha particles excite a fluorophore molecule, such as ZnS doped with silver or copper, and photons are then emitted in the visible region that are measured by a photomultiplier or avalanche photodiode, when it decays to the ground state.

There is a local market in Argentina for the development of these types of neutron detectors given that the country has several power-producing and experimental reactors, but it is also plausible to think about the development of these neutron detectors for a vast international market focused on radiological protection systems.

The scintillator plates used for neutron detection can also be used for neutron imaging or tomography, a research technique that has a wide range of applications across various disciplines. This is made possible because the photons emitted by the fluorophore can be captured by a CCD camera, forming the image of the object irradiated with neutrons, as schematized in Figure 4. The plate consists of a thin aluminum sheet (transparent to neutrons) on which a polymer is deposited where the micrometric particles of ⁶LiF and ZnS are embedded. The typical thickness of this sheet is of the order of 100 to 200 μm.

There are only two companies in the world that market these plates (Swiss RC Tritec and British Scintacor). For a plate with a size of 20 cm x 20 cm the cost is USD 4,500 and they contain approximately 1 gram of ⁶Li, which is its most valuable component. Thus, the added value of using the ⁶Li isotope in neutron imaging systems (there are approximately 50 around the world) is enormous compared to other present uses of lithium.

All of these diverse applications of lithium isotopes in nuclear technologies are technologically possible, though the isotopes must be separated in an economical and environmentally sustainable way.

Isotopic Separation of Lithium

During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union developed lithium isotopic separation techniques for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The method adopted – and which is still used in Russia and China – is the so-called COLEX (column exchange) method, which is based on the exchange of lithium between mercury and an aqueous solution of LiOH that flows in countercurrent:

⁶Li(sln) + ⁷Li(Hg) ↔ ⁶Li(Hg) + ⁷Li(sln)

⁶Li is enriched in lithium amalgam and its enrichment factor is defined:

which for this process varies between 1.04 (at 50 ℃) and 1.06 (at 0 ℃), which is one of the highest measured values for the isotopic separation of lithium between all techniques. However, this method is highly polluting as it uses large amounts of mercury. At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States, 5,500 tons of Hg were used between 1955 and 1963, of which about 900 tons ended up in the rivers and soils of Tennessee. 

Our group at the Constituyentes Atomic Center of the CNEA, together with other groups from the Bariloche and Ezeiza Atomic Centers (CAB and CAE), collaborate on a project focused on the isotopic separation of lithium, which began in January 2023 and is funded by the Sectorial Argentine Fund (FONARSEC). 

The project, called “Lithium isotopic separation for uses in nuclear technology of high added value” has the general objective of increasing the value chain of Argentine lithium. The specific objectives are: 

• Isotopically separate ⁷Li and ⁶Li by electrochemical methods and by the AVLIS (Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation) technique.
• Build scintillator plates for neutron imaging and detection systems, using ⁶Li, for use in nuclear centers in Argentina and, potentially, for exportation.
• Produce tritium breeders for fusion reactors using lithium salts enriched in ⁶Li, positioning Argentina among the countries that contribute to the development of this promising, disruptive and environmentally sustainable technology.

Two companies, Nucleoelectrica Argentina (which operates domestic nuclear plants) and INVAP  (which develops nuclear reactors, satellites and other technologies), also participate in this project, as potential end users of the devices built with the Li isotopes.   

Although there are several lithium isotopic separation methods, in recent years electrochemical techniques have been widely studied experimentally and theoretically . They are based on the electrodeposition or insertion of lithium onto metallic substrates, metal oxides or graphite, electrodialysis through membranes and electromigration in aqueous solutions, organic media or gels.

In this project we are optimizing electrochemical methods based on electrodeposition on metals (Ni, Au, etc.) and on hard carbons, which are carbons containing crystallites formed by two or three layers of graphene.

Figure 5 shows the electrodeposition or insertion process where ⁶Li is enriched in the solid phase, while the solution is enriched in ⁷Li. Enrichment factors reaching up to 1.060 have been reported on LiCoO₂.

In our group, experiments have been carried out on Ni with an increased specific area through the presence of pores in the metallic structure. Isotopic separation factors of up to 1.048 have been achieved using organic solvents.

In the Photonics and Optoelectronics Division and the Laser Technology Applications Sub-Management (SATL) of the CAB (Bariloche Atomic Center), the AVLIS isotopic separation technique is being implemented. The basic idea of ​​this technique is to take advantage of the small difference in ionization energy of the Li isotopes to selectively ionize one of them with laser radiation, and thus be able to separate the isotopes using electromagnetic fields, as schematized in Figure 6. This method allows an almost complete separation of isotopes, but is bounded in its scalability by the limited availability of expensive high-power lasers.

The Materials Physical Chemistry group of the CAB studies different synthesis methods of Li₂TiO₃, Li₂ZrO₃ and Li₄SiO₄ for their use as tritium reproducers. In these works, the thermal and physico-chemical stability of these compounds is evaluated under conditions similar to those present in a fusion reactor, and the microstructure/texture obtained from the material is related to the synthesis variables in order to control the specific area, pore size and agglomerates of the material. These characteristics are important for forming the powders into pebbles and achieving the level of mechanical stability that is necessary within the fertile mantle.

In our group, scintillator plates have been developed based on ⁶LiF that have been tested in different neutron imaging facilities in Argentina (RA6 Reactor at CAB-CNEA) and in a Round Robin test at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland). Very promising results were obtained in terms of spatial resolution, compared to commercial plates. 

These scintillator plates have been used to develop neutron detectors when coupled to silicon photomultipliers. The preliminary tests carried out in the detector laboratory at the Dan Beninson Institute of the Ezeiza Atomic Center (CAE) have given good results in terms of sensitivity and resistance to degradation of the plates during prolonged doses.

All of these developments can be useful in different projects of the CNEA. For example, the Boron Neutron Capture Cancer Therapy (BNCT) project requires neutron shielding to protect patients during irradiation, and ⁶Li-enriched LiF is an excellent candidate for this. And the scintillator plates developed in our group have already been tested by LAHN personnel in the RA3 reactor of the CAB with good results and it is expected that future neutron tomography instruments will use them, replacing imports and opening up the possibility of their export.

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Lithium, the Universe’s first and oldest metal, should not have its terrestrial history dictated exclusively by the rapid rise of the electromobility sector. 

Keeping a portion of lithium reserves in the ground in countries like Argentina will be necessary for the world, and beneficial to sustainable domestic economic development. From present-day PWR’s to advanced nuclear fission reactor designs, to the many applications of scintillator plates for neutron imaging and detection, to the nearly unlimited potential of nuclear fusion reactors, lithium is key. Supporting more efficient and scalable isotopic separation techniques for lithium is also essential and will be worth the investment many times over in a diversified future global economy that highly values lithium.

Editor’s note: This article is a translated, edited and updated version of the original Spanish article “El litio y sus isótopos en tecnología nuclear: separar para agregar valor” by Horacio Corti in CIENCIA E INVESTIGACIÓN – TOMO 73 Nº 3 – 2023, published under a creative commons CC BY-NC-SA license.

Banner image: Lithium mining activities are pictured in northern Argentina from the International Space Station as it orbited 266 miles above the South American continent in 2023. Source: NASA.

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