Tritium release from breeding blanket materials in high magnetic field

Under the operating conditions of a fusion reactor, the blanket materials: ceramic and Be pebbles will be at a high temperature (up to 1123 K), under action of intense radiation (up to 1019 n m−2 s−1) and magnetic field (MF) up to 7–10 T. In order to introduce action of radiation and MF in post-irradiation investigations of the tritium release from the blanket materials, a special rig for thermo-annealing of pre-irradiated samples at a high temperature up to 1120 K under irradiation with fast electrons of 5 MeV and dose rate 14 MGy/h in MF up to 1.7 T was used for this study. A delay of the tritium release in MF of 2.4 T at thermo-annealing of the lithium orthosilicate Li4SiO4 pebbles (FZK) irradiated in the EXOTIC-8/8 experiment was observed. Chemical forms of the tritium localised in the pebbles and the tritium distribution were determined (up to 75%, in T+). The main form of the tritium localized in the beryllium pebbles irradiated in the BERYLLIUM experiment is T2 (85–95%). A stimulating effect of a MF of 1.7 T on the tritium release from the Be pebbles at the annealing at 1120 K under the radiation was observed (up to 80%).