Tritium release from ceramic breeders with catalytic function

Catalytic breeders were fabricated by impregnating lithium silicate with platinum. Out of pile annealing experiments were conducted using irradiated ceramic breeders. The results of the experiments indicate that tritium bred in the catalytic breeder material is released at lower temperatures compared with the breeder material without catalyst. The amount of tritium produced in the breeder materials were estimated by using the neutron spectrum and the nuclear cross section without consideration of self-shielding effects. In the estimation, the self-shielding effect was ignored. Comparison of experimental and calculated amounts of tritium produced indicates that the difference between the values is approximately 25%. (author)