Paper AS-FrM4
Effectiveness of Passivation Techniques on Hydrogen Desorption in a Pure Tritium Environment

Friday, November 13, 2009, 9:20 am, Room C2

This research compared protium outgrowth of different passivation surfaces in a low pressure environment. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It is used as a fuel in fusion reactors, a booster material in nuclear weapons and as a light source in commercial applications. When used in fusion reactors, and especially when used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, purity is critical. For Department of Energy use, tritium is routinely recycled by Savannah River Site and is produced and stored at 99.99% purity. For use elsewhere in the country, it must be shipped and stored, while maintaining the highest purity possible. As an isotope of hydrogen it exchanges easily with the most common isotope of hydrogen, protium. Stainless steel bottles are used to transport and store tritium. Protium, present in air, becomes associated in and on the surface of stainless steel during and after the manufacture of the steel. Therefore, the stainless steel bottles contribute to the contamination of the tritium with protium. This research is to determine how effective different passivation techniques are in minimizing the contamination of tritium with protium. Additionally, this research will attempt to determine a relationship between surface chemistry of passivated steels and protium contamination of tritium.