Deuterium Extraction from Helium with a Vanadium Vacuum Permeator: Commissioning of the Tritium Extraction eXperiment (TEX)

ABSTRACTThe Safety and Tritium Applied Research (STAR) Facility has been established at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and is designated as a National User Facility. STAR is designed for use by the fusion community to study tritium science and technology issues associated with the development of fusion technology. The facility tritium inventory limit is 16,000 Ci, allowing several simultaneous experiments requiring hundreds to a few thousand Ci per experiment. Experiments are conducted in gloveboxes. Current plans include research on tritium interactions with plasma facing materials; tritium behavior, corrosion and safety studies for molten fluoride salts; chemical reactivity of fusion materials; mobilization of activation products and characterization of dust/debris from fusion devices.

Impact of nuclear irradiation on helium bubble nucleation at interfaces in liquid metals coupled to permeation through stainless steels

This paper gives a brief overview of the Safety and Tritium Applied Research (STAR) facility operated by the Fusion Safety Program (FSP) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). FSP researchers use the STAR facility to carry out experiments in tritium permeation and retention in various fusion materials, including wall armor tile materials. FSP researchers also perform other experimentation as well to support safety assessment in fusion development. This lab, in its present two-building configuration, has been in operation for over ten years. The main experiments at STAR are briefly described. This paper discusses recent work to enhance personnel safety at the facility. The STAR facility is a Department of Energy less than hazard category 3 facility; the personnel safety approach calls for ventilation and tritium monitoring for radiation protection. The tritium areas of STAR have about 4 to 12 air changes per hour, with air flow being once through and then routed to the facility vent stack. Additional radiation monitoring has been installed to read the laboratory room air where experiments with tritium are conducted. These ion chambers and bubblers are used to verify that no significant tritium concentrations are present in the experiment rooms. Standby electrical power has been added to the facility exhaust blower so that proper ventilation will now operate during commercial power outages as well as the real-time tritium air monitors.

The effect of a micro bubble dispersed gas phase on hydrogen isotope transport in liquid metals under nuclear irradiation

Permeation is investigated for the introduction of hydrogen isotopes into lead lithium (PbLi) for the Tritium Extraction eXperiment (TEX). TEX is a forced-convection PbLi loop under construction at Idaho National Laboratory that will test the vacuum permeator (VP) method of tritium extraction from PbLi. The source permeator (SP) delivers atomic hydrogen (H, D, and T) from a gas-phase reservoir into the PbLi via a permeable dense metal membrane. A modular system and a fixed SP system are presented. In the modular design, PbLi flows through the inside of a tubular membrane, and gas-phase hydrogen is introduced on the outside of the membrane. Atomic hydrogen permeates radially inward through the membrane into the PbLi. In the fixed design, PbLi flows into an expansion chamber with closed-ended tubular membranes inserted. Gas-phase hydrogen is introduced on the inside of the closed-ended membranes, and atomic hydrogen permeates radially outward into the flowing PbLi. Hydrogen transport models based on steady-state mass transport through PbLi and permeation through the metal membrane were developed to assess the operation of the SP relative to experimental variables and to allow understanding of uncertain parameter effects, such as PbLi hydrogen transport properties and the effective hydrogen permeability of the VP. This modeling effort considers iron as the SP material and vanadium as the VP material.

Permeation of multi-component hydrogen isotopes through nickel

Triathler™ Model 425-034 single vial liquid scintillation counter (LSC) counters have been in use at the Safety and Tritium Applied Research Facility (STAR) for approximately three years. During facility setup and determination of instrumentation needs to support STAR facility operations, the Triathler was chose to assess smearable tritium contamination levels for operational conditions. The Triathler was selected due to the rapid turnaround time for obtaining tritium contamination levels versus other automated batch LSC counters currently in use at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and other Department of Energy (DOE) installations. Operational experience with the Triathler thus far has shown a high reliability for verifying removable contamination levels at a level of < 1,000 Disintegrations Per Minute (DPM) per 100 cm2 when compared to the Packard™ Tri-Carb 1905 AB/LA Liquid Scintillation Analyzer used by the Reactor Technologies Complex (RTC) Radiochemistry Measurements Laboratory (RML).However, variances in the reported results for activity in DPM/vial from the Triathler versus the Packard Tri-Carb have been noted when operating in the range of 5,000 to 20,000 DPM. These variances make reliability and use of the Triathler suspect for verifying smearable contamination levels meet the release criteria identified in DOE Order 5400.5, Radiation Protection of the Public and Environment. Ensuring that removable tritium contamination levels on materials and equipment intended for free-release to the public are < 10,000 DPM per 100 cm2 is a requirement in the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) contract.Comprehensive cross-comparisons have been ongoing to ensure the Triathler LSC reported DPM values provide sufficient detection of smearable tritium contamination when cross-compared to other automated liquid scintillation counters available at the INL.

Proton permeation and selective separation of hydrogen isotopes through fullerene nanocages (X12Y12): A DFT insights

A laboratory scale bioreactor has been designed and set up in order to degrade hydrogen sulfide from an air stream. The reactor is a vertical column of 7 litre capacity and 1 meter in height. It is divided into three modules and each module is filled with pellets of agricultural residues as packing bed material. The gas stream fed into the reactor through the upper inlet consists of a mixture of hydrogen sulfide and humidified air. The hydrogen sulfide content in the inlet gas stream was increased in stages until the degradation efficiency was below 90%. The parameters to be controlled in order to reach continuous and stable operation were temperature, moisture content and the percentage of the compound to be degraded at the inlet and outlet gas streams (removal or elimination efficiency). When the H2S mass loading rate was between 10 and 40 g m(-3) h(-1), the removal efficiency was greater than 90%. The support material had a good physical performance throughout operation time, which is evidence that this material is suitable for biofiltration purposes.

Hydrogen isotope population near dislocations in zirconium from molecular dynamics

Tritium breeding is a critical component of any self-sustaining future fusion reactor. The liquid-metal eutectic PbLi is of particular interest as a tritium breeder material due to its favorable thermophysical and neutronic properties. One of the several remaining challenges facing PbLi breeder blankets is the need to design and validate a highly efficient tritium extraction system. The vacuum permeator is a promising extraction concept that utilizes tritium permeation through a highly permeable metal membrane. The Tritium Extraction eXperiment (TEX) is a forced-convection PbLi loop constructed to investigate tritium extraction from PbLi with vacuum permeators. Accurate thermal-hydraulic and tritium transport models are required to establish appropriate test matrices, predict experiment outcomes, and analyze data. However, the hydrogen transport properties of PbLi and permeator materials have large uncertainties. A database is collected and a parametric analysis is conducted on the effect of hydrogen transport material properties, including diffusivity of H in PbLi and the permeator, solubility of H in PbLi and the permeator, and the permeator surface recombination constant, on the expected tritium extraction efficiency for a vacuum permeator installed in TEX. Herein, we observe that the solubility of H in PbLi and the permeator and the recombination constant of the permeator have the largest effect on extraction efficiency.

A technique has been developed for producing calibrated metal hydride films for use in the measurement of high-energy (5--15 MeV) particle reaction cross sections for hydrogen and helium isotopes on hydrogen isotopes. Absolute concentrations of various hydrogen isotopes in the film is expected to be determined to better than {+-}2% leading to the capacity of accurately measuring various reaction cross sections. Hydrogen isotope concentrations from near 100% to 5% can be made accurately and reproducibly. This is accomplished with the use of high accuracy pressure measurements coupled with high accuracy mass spectrometric measurements of each constituent partial pressure of the gas mixture during loading of the metal occluder films. Various techniques are used to verify the amount of metal present as well as the amount of hydrogen isotopes; high energy ion scattering analysis, PV measurements before, during and after loading, and thermal desorption/mass spectrometry measurements. The most appropriate metal to use for the occluder film appears to be titanium but other occluder metals are also being considered. Calibrated gas ratio samples, previously prepared, are used for the loading gas. Deviations from this calibrated gas ratio are measured using mass spectrometry during and after the loading process thereby determining the loadingmore » of the various hydrogen isotopes. These techniques are discussed and pertinent issues presented.« less

Catharanthus roseus cells (C87N) grown in a 30 litre airlift vessel achieved a growth rate of 0.366 day−1. The maximum biomass yield (9.13 gl−1) was recorded after 168 hours (7 days). On-line analysis of the composition of inlet and outlet gas streams during the growth cycle allowed calculation of the metabolic activity of the cultures. Oxygen uptake on a dry weight basis reached a maximum of 4.5×10−4 Moles O2 g dry weight−1 h−1 after 96 hours (during the mid-logarithmic phase of growth) and a maximum of 2.7×10−3 Moles O2 l−1 h−1 on a volume basis (towards the end of the logarithmic phase). Carbon dioxide production ran in parallel with oxygen use with maxima at 4.2×10−4 Moles CO2 g dry weight−1 h−1 and 3.4×10−3 Moles g l−1 h−1 respectively.

Hydrogen isotope permeation and retention behavior in the CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy

Hydrogen isotope permeation through and inventory in the first wall of the water cooled Pb–17Li blanket for DEMO