Materiological aspects related to the application of lithium in the thermonuclear reactor blankets

In most of the existing designs of thermonuclear reactors, metallic lithium is incorporated as a material for breeding tritium; this alkali metal can be used as a coolant and the use of lithium in envisaged in the eutectiv melts of the Pb-Li and Pb-Bi-Li alloys and in the Na-Li melt. The authors carry out a brief analysis of the corrosion aspects of the interaction of lithium with the structural materials to evaluate the possible effect of the factors arising during the service and to examine the ways of improving the reliability of the liquid-metal systems.