Liquid Scintillation Counter Procurement for ERATO/THALIA and LIBRTI Project

A. Lot 1- THALIA Project The THALIA Project serves as the parent initiative with the primary goal of testing and validating analytical work-up methods and instrumentation for tritium accountancy in molten breeder material matrices. The THALIA workstream will be structured into dedicated functional areas, each designed to support specific activities:

• Molten breeder handling area – for heating and maintaining breeder material in a molten state, equipped with a purpose-built tritium introduction system to accurately dose and generate tritiated breeder material samples at required concentrations.
• Preparation area – for weighing and formulating molten breeder materials, including dosing with impurities where required.
• Sample collection and cooling area – for safe collection and solidification of samples.
• Sample analysis preparation area – for wet chemistry sample preparation and sample darkening, following methodologies developed under the ERATO Project.
• Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC) analysis – following preparation into a suitable LSC cocktail, samples will be analysed using LSC instrumentation. The LIBRTI programme is a central component of UKAEA’s fusion energy mission, specifically focusing on the safe and effective handling, storage, and processing of tritium—a critical fuel for fusion reactors. B. Lot 2 – LIBRTI Facility Project The LIBRTI Facility Project aims to establish Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC) capabilities through collaboration with partner organisations, enabling the training of future personnel working at the neutron facility. This capability underpins tritium breeding research, including the analysis of purge gases and breeder materials such as solid, liquid, and molten salts. A sample oxidizer will be required for preparing solid samples that cannot be directly processed for LSC analysis. Following oxidation and preparation into a suitable LSC cocktail, samples will be analysed via LSC instrumentation.