Hydrogen isotope behavior on a water–metal boundary with simultaneous transfer from and to the metal surface

Abstract

To investigate the behavior of hydrogen on a water–metal boundary, a series of experiments have been performed that studied tritium permeation into a pressurized water jacket through pure iron piping, which contained approximately 1kPa of pure tritium gas at 423K, while monitoring the chemical forms of tritium. Additionally, the behavior of deuterium, which was generated on the heavy water–metal boundary and transferred to the metal, was also investigated using a pressure-proof heavy water vessel. Actual deuterium transfer through various metal piping, such as Fe, Ni, SS304, etc., was detected clearly by QMS at 423–573K. Moreover, using the above heavy water system, we have succeeded in detecting hydrogen isotopes simultaneously transferring from and to the metal surface by introducing hydrogen gas to the Ni piping after deuterium permeation from the heavy water side had stabilized.