On use of beryllium in fusion reactors: Resources, impurities and necessity of detritiation after irradiation

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design 2016-11, Vol.109-111, p.480-484
• Main Authors: Kolbasov, B.N., Khripunov, V.I., Biryukov, A.Yu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beryllium; Beryllium detritiation; Beryllium management; Beryllium resources; Impurities in beryllium
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2016.02.073

•Potential needs in Be for fusion power engineering may exceed Be resources.•Be recycling after its operation in a fusion power plant (FPP) seems inevitable.•U impurity in Be seriously impairs environmental properties of fusion power plants.•Upon burial of irradiated Be the main problems are caused by U and 3H impurities.•Clearance of Be extracted from a FPP is impossible due to U impurity. Worldwide identified resources of beryllium somewhat exceed 80 000t. Beryllium production in all the countries of the world in 2012 was about 230t. At the same time, some conceptual designs of fusion power reactors envisage utilization of several hundred tons of this metal. Therefore return of beryllium into the production cycle (recycling) will be necessary. The beryllium ore from some main deposits has uranium content inadmissible for fusion reactors. This fact raises a question on the need to develop and apply an economically acceptable technology for beryllium purification from the uranium. Practically any technological procedure with beryllium used in fusion reactors requires its detritiation. A study of tritium and helium release from irradiated beryllium at different temperatures and rates of temperature increase was performed at Kurchatov Institute.