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An In-Situ Tritium-Deuterium Gas-Purification System for Muon Catalyzed Fusion Experiments at the RIKEN-RAL Muon Facility

T. Matsuzaki, K. Nagamine, K. Ishida, M. Kato, H. Sugai, M. Tanase, G.H. Eaton

Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 41 / Number 3P2 / May 2002 / Pages 993-997

Purification and Chemical Process / Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A22733

An in-situ tritium-deuterium gas-purification system has been constructed to produce a high-purity D-T target gas for muon catalyzed fusion experiments at the RIKEN-RAL Muon Facility. At the experiment site, the system enables us to purify the D-T target gas by removing 3He component, to adjust the D/T gas mixing ratio and to measure the hydrogen isotope components. The system is specially designed to handle the D-T gas with a negative pressure, and the maximum tritium inventory of 56 TBq (1500 Ci) is operated. The employed combination of a palladium filter and a cryotrap has demonstrated as an efficient device to purify hydrogen gas with a negative pressure. We have completed a series of muon catalyzed d-t fusion experiments at various tritium concentrations, including an experiment with a non-equilibrium D2-T2 target condition. The muon catalyzed t-t fusion process has also been studied using the tritium gas supplied free of 3He by the system.