Radiation-induced effects in neutron- and electron-irradiated lithium silicate ceramic breeder pebbles

Abstract Ceramic breeder (CB) pebbles consisting of lithium orthosilicate (Li4SiO4) as the main phase and lithium metasilicate (Li2SiO3) as a secondary phase were analysed with respect to radiation-induced defects and radiolysis products. Therefore, pebbles that were irradiated with neutrons in the so-called HICU experiment ( H igh neutron fluence i rradiation of pebble sta c ks for f u sion) were compared to pebbles irradiated with accelerated electrons and to an unirradiated sample. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy was used to investigate changes in the phase composition. Beside an expected increase in the second phase in the neutron-irradiated samples, no further significant …