Development of fabrication technologies for advanced breeding functional materials For DEMO reactors

Demonstration power reactors (DEMOs) require advanced tritium breeders and neutron multipliers that have high stability at high temperatures. Lithium titanate (Li2TiO3) is one of the most promising candidates among tritium breeders because of its tritium release characteristics. Li2TiO3 with additional Li (Li2+xTiO3+y) has increased stability in a reducing atmosphere at high temperatures. In this work, Li2+xTiO3+y pebbles were fabricated using the emulsion method, which is a sol–gel method. The raw material for the fabrication of Li2+xTiO3+y pebbles was synthesized from a mixture of LiOH·H2O and H2TiO3 at specific ratios. The average diameter and the sphericity of the pebbles fabricated by the emulsion method were 1.40 mm and 1.02, respectively. In addition, beryllium (Be) intermetallic compounds (beryllides) are promising materials for advanced neutron multipliers. The results of the trial fabrications in this work showed that beryllides of Be–Ti and Be–V intermetallics could be synthesized using the plasma sintering method.

► We developed an emulsion method to fabricate Li2TiO3 pebbles with additional Li (Li2+xTiO3+y) as an advanced tritium breeder.
► The average diameter and the sphericity of the pebbles were 1.40 mm and 1.02, respectively.
► The emulsion method is a promising method for the fabrication of advanced tritium breeder pebbles.
► Furthermore, the beryllium handling room was constructed for the R&D of beryllides.
► Be–Ti and Be–V intermetallic beryllides could be directly synthesized using the plasma sintering.