Homogenization treatment to stabilize the compositional structure of beryllide pebbles

Nakamichi, Masaru; Kim, Jae-Hwan

DEMO reactors require advanced neutron multiplier that has higher stability at high temperature. Beryllides such as BeTi are the most promising materials. A plasma sintering method has been proposed as new technique for rod fabrication. It was clarified that the beryllide could be simultaneously synthesized and jointed by the plasma sintering method. Using this plasma-sintered beryllide rod, prototype pebble of Be-Ti beryllide was fabricated by a rotating electrode method. The prototype pebbles with 1 mm in average diameter were successfully fabricated. However, compositional structure was changed by re-melting. These Be and BeTi phases in addition to BeTi phase were separated in the prototype pebble. From the result of annealing treatment of prototype pebble, prototype pebble phase was becoming single phase of BeTi by annealing above 1473K.