Ceramic breeder research and development: progress and focus

Abstract The world-wide efforts on ceramic breeder materials in the last two years concerned Li 2 O, Li 4 SiO 4 , Li 2 TiO 3 and Li 2 ZrO 3 , with a clear emphasis on the development of Li 2 TiO 3 . Pebble-manufacturing processes have been developed up to a 10 kg scale. Characterisation of materials has advanced. A jump-wise progress is observed in the characterisation of pebble-beds, in particular of their thermo-mechanical behaviour. Thermal property data are still limited. A number of breeder materials have been or are being irradiated in material test reactors like HFR and JMTR. The EXOTIC-8 series of in-pile experiments is a major source of tritium release data. This paper discusses the technical advancements and proposes a focus for further research and development (RD tritium release and retention properties; determination of the key factors limiting blanket life.