Post-irradiation studies of beryllium reflector of fission reactor examination of gas release, swelling and structure of beryllium under annealing

Microstructure of long-term annealed highly irradiated beryllium

“…The most important irradiation induced effects on beryllium are associated with the high quantity of helium produced through the neutron multiplication reaction 9 Be(n,2n)2 4 He and the reaction chain 9 Be(n,a) 6 He(b À ) 6 Li(n,a) 3 H. The solubility of helium in beryllium is very limited and supersaturation of the Be matrix is attained very quickly. The helium atoms generated are allowed to diffuse and precipitate in bubbles, grow and coalesce and as such induce swelling of the material.…”

Safety assessment of two advanced ferritic steel molten salt blanket design concepts

“…Based on experiments preformed by Refs. [33][34][35], neutron irradiated beryllium will not release hydrogen isotopes contained within the bulk of the material until the beryllium is heated to a sufficiently high temperature. This release temperature depends on beryllium density and the length of irradiation.…”

Tritium Barriers and Tritium Diffusion in Fusion Reactors

“…The release behavior for the different materials was similar, but the fractional release was greater for the less dense materials. Andreev, et al [87] irradiated hot pressed beryllium at 373 K. After neutron irradiation, thermal desorption spectroscopy was used with a heating rate of 10 K s -1 . Release began to occur at approximately 773 K. The temperature at which maximum release occurred depended on the neutron fluence.…”