TEM study of beryllium pebbles after neutron irradiation up to 3000 appm helium production

Beryllium is planned to be used as a neutron multiplier in the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) European concept of a breeding blanket of DEMO. In order to evaluate the irradiation performance, individual pebbles and constrained pebble beds were neutron irradiated at temperatures typical for fusion blanket. Beryllium pebbles with a diameter of 1 mm produced by the Rotating Electrode Method were subjected to a TEM study after irradiation at the HFR, Petten, at temperatures of 686, 753, 861, and 968 K. The helium production in the pebbles was calculated in the range from 2090 to 3090 appm. Gas bubbles as disks of hexagonal shape were observed for all four irradiation temperatures. The disks were oriented in the (0 0 0 1) basal plane with a height directed along the [0 0 0 1] “c” axis. The average diameters of the bubbles increase from 7.5 to 80 nm with increasing irradiation temperature, the bulk densities accordingly decrease from 4.4 × 1022 to 3.8 × 1020 m−3. With increasing irradiation temperature, the swelling of the pebbles increases from 0.6% at 686 K up to 6.5% at 968 K.