A tritium gas-handling system for muon catalyzed fusion research at the RIKEN-RAL Muon Facility

Abstract

A tritium gas-handling system has been constructed to produce a high-purity D–T target gas for precise measurements of the α-sticking probability in the muon catalyzed fusion cycle at the RIKEN-RAL Muon Facility in the UK. At the experiment site, the system enables us to purify the D–T target gas by removing the 3He component, to adjust the D/T gas mixing ratio and to measure the hydrogen isotope components. The system is designed to handle D–T gas with a negative pressure; the total volume is 1.1 liter. The whole performance has been confirmed, and tritium gas with an inventory of 56 TBq (1500 Ci) has been operated in the system. We have completed a series of muon catalyzed fusion experiments at tritium concentrations of 99%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 28%, 20% and 10%, allowing a more precise determination of the α-sticking probability.