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 (Li_2+xTiO_3+y) has increased stability in a reducing atmosphere at high temperatures. In this work, Li_2+xTiO_3+y pebbles were fabricated using the emulsion method, which is a sol–gel method. The raw material for the fabrication of Li_2+xTiO_3+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.