Deuterium retention and desorption properties of ternary beryllide pebbles as advanced neutron multipliers

Abstract

Beryllium intermetallic compounds (beryllides) such as Be12Ti and Be12V are the most promising advanced neutron multipliers in demonstration (DEMO) power reactors because of their low swelling and high stability at high temperature. In this work, single-phase Be12Ti and Be12V pebbles produced by a novel process combining plasma sintering and rotating electrode methods were successfully fabricated. In parallel to the successful fabrication of binary beryllide pebbles, new research and development on ternary beryllides was begun to determine preferable pebble compositions in terms of mass production and improved properties. The desorption properties and retention of hydrogen isotopes (deuterium) using the newly developed ternary beryllide pebbles indicated that the ternary pebbles exhibited better deuterium desorption properties, such as lower starting-up temperature, total retention, and activation energy for deuterium desorption, than these for beryllium.