NNSA requires LiH material (provided by NNSA) to be purified and reprocessed. NNSA targets recycling approximately 1,500 – 5,000 kg/yr of LiH. The current mission follows cleaning, purification, metal production and hydriding process as described below.
• Cleaning prepares the LiH feedstock for purification or direct re-use. Material cleaned for direct re-use would be returned to NNSA after cleaning.
• Purification uses a chemical process to purify and reform 6Li feedstock into lithium chloride (LiCl) (an intermediate).
• Metal production converts LiCl to purified lithium metal
• Hydriding reacts lithium metal with hydrogen to create LiH.
• Salvage will occur throughout all process steps to recover the lithium caught in waste streams for purification to weapons grade material.
