Experimental determination of the solubility of hydrogen in a quality certified eutectic PbLi alloy

•The gas absorption technique was used to study the solubility of protium in the eutectic PbLi alloy.•The samples of the eutectic PbLi used during this absorption campaign have been qualified in terms of impurities and Li content.•A total set of four absorption tests have been carried out at four different temperatures: 241 °C, 369 °C, 475 °C, and 579 °C.•Results show almost not variation of the Sieverts’ constant with the temperature, with an average value of 1.95 × 10–2 mol m–3 Pa0.5. The efficient operation of the liquid breeding blankets relies on the correct definition of the transport parameters of protium, deuterium and tritium in PbLi liquid metals with an eutectic composition. This is the case of the DCLL blanket or the WCLL, where the solubility and diffusivity values will affect to the induced tritium flux in terms of magnitude and kinetics. However, there exists a huge band in the literature for the results obtained experimentally for the solubility of the isotopes in the mentioned liquid metal alloy, which is unacceptable from the designing point of view. Moreover, the exact content of lithium and the impurities that the PbLi alloy may contain seems to be another key issue that needs to be faced. This work shows the preliminary results obtained in a new measurement campaign carried out with samples of PbLi qualified in terms of impurities and lithium content. These samples have been tested in the Absorption-Desorption facility of the UPV/EHU that has been recently repaired and upgraded as part of EUROfusion program in collaboration with CIEMAT.