Experimental and Modelling Studies on the Exposure of Wall Surfaces to Tritium Gas in Ambient Room Conditions
Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 28 / Number 3P1 / October 1995 / Pages 871-876
Tritium Safety / Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30514
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An experimental set-up is used to carry out static exposure tests to study the uptake and oxidation of tritium released in ambient room air, routinely or accidentally, in the presence of selected surface materials. Tritium, in its elemental form at concentrations of the order of ∼0.4 GBq/m3 (10−2 Ci/m3), is injected into the glass exposure chamber containing the selected surface material and air at atmospheric pressure. Periodically, samples of the chamber atmosphere are analysed, using liquid scintillation counting, to obtain the concentrations of HTO and T2. The exposures have been performed using aluminium, 316L stainless steel and painted stainless steel plates, as the selected surface materials. Results are compared with predictions using the ITER approved TMAP4 code. The results indicate practically the same conversion rate, of about 0.02% per day, for both the aluminium and stainless steel samples and give reasonable agreement with modelling predictions. Strong absorbtion of both T2 and HTO by the painted surface is observed, suggesting the use of high values for the solubility constant to correctly predict this behaviour.
