Studies of tritium desorption from beryllium and characterization of erosion products under plasma-beryllium interaction

The paper describes results of two studies related to the use of beryllium as plasma facing material in fusion reactors. The first study is devoted to the burst release of tritium and helium from neutron irradiated beryllium under high heating rates (up to 100 K s(-1)), and to reduction of temperatures corresponding to the gas release peaks with growth of the heating rates as well as to mechanisms of the above mentioned phenomena. Experiments were accompanied with theoretical estimates. Beryllium sputtering under hydrogen ion bombardment was under the second study. The microstructure of beryllium surfaces and redeposited films were investigated. Thickness of the redeposited film, sizes of erosion products, and hydrogen accumulation in it were measured. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.