Manufacturing methods and characterisation of titanium beryllides

Beryllium pebbles of about I mm diameter are presently the reference neutron multiplier in helium cooled pebble bed (HCPB) blanket designs, both in Japan and Europe. However, some concern exists with Be pebbles, mostly because of the uncertainty of T-release properties during DEMO reactor operation conditions. Since the recent past, beryllides like Be12Ti are considered to be one of the most promising materials for advanced neutron multipliers due to their relatively high melting point, good chemical and corrosion stability and much better tritium release behaviour compared to pure Be. Development of scaleable manufacturing methods bypassing the intrinsic brittleness of beryllides is considered to be the most challenging. In this work, we present a detailed study of two different routes of titanium beryllide fabrication, including characterisation of obtained specimens by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray analysis and impurity analysis performed by plasma emission spectrometer. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.