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Release Behavior of Decay Helium from Zirconium-Cobalt Tritide

Takumi Hayashi, Junzou Amano, Kenji Okuno, Yuji Naruse

Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 21 / Number 2P2 / March 1992 / Pages 845-849

Material; Storage and Processing / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29854

In order to discuss the long-term reliability and safety of zirconium-cobalt (ZrCo) alloy for tritium (T) use, the release behavior of decay helium (3He) from ZrCo tritide has been investigated for one and a half years with a radio-gaschromatograph. The results show that the release fractions of the total decay 3He in ZrCo tritide are less than 3 % and has been almost constant for 18 months under the following conditions : the operating temperatures = 293 ∼ 523 K, the atom ratios (T/ZrCo) = 0.3 ∼ 1.4, and the number of hydrogenation-dehydrogenation cycles before tritiation = 1 ∼ 10. Moreover, residual decay 3He was not released even if ZrCo was heated to 873 K, though most of the tritium was released. It became clear that the decay 3He was quite immovable in ZrCo tritide under these experimental conditions.