Application of Nonporous Alumina Based Ceramics as Structural Material for Devices Handling Tritium at Elevated Temperatures

The article presents results of comparative tests for determination of deuterium fluxes permeating through walls of austenitic stainless steel AISI304 (DIN 1.4301) chamber and Al₂O₃ based ceramic F99.7 chamber. Both chambers represent a piece of Ø26x Ø22x117 mm³ tube with spherical bottom ending. It is shown that at 773 K and deuterium pressure of 1200 mbar the permeated deuterium flux through the stainless steel chamber constituted 8∙10^-5cm³/s, while the flux through ceramic one it did not exceed the sensitivity of the measurement method threshold, namely ~1.5∙10^-7cm³/s. The ceramic chamber turned out to survive more than 10³ cycles of heating up to 773 K with no damages. It did not lose its impermeability up to 10 bar of internal deuterium pressure. The authors also present test results of a prototype bed for reversible tritium storage. The bed’s case was made of alumina based ceramic F99.7, titanium being used as tritide making metal and high frequency induction used for heating of tritide metal.