The HFR Petten high dose irradiation programme of beryllium for blanket application

This paper reports the objectives of a high dose irradiation programme of beryllium in the high flux reactor in Petten that will be performed in the frame of the European Programme for development of the helium cooled pebble bed (HCPB). The main objectives of irradiation are to study the irradiation behaviour of beryllium pebble beds, in terms of dimensional stability and their tritium retention behaviour. High fluence irradiation of beryllium specimens (HIDOBE) will be performed up to He contents of 6000 appm, which is about 30% of the expected DEMO end-of-life value with a relevant dPa to He ratio. In this paper, the nuclear parameters, irradiation conditions and the test-matrix, i.e. beryllium grades and pebbles are presented.