The soret effect and its implications for fusion reactors

Abstract

Tritium permeation through and retention in fusion reactor structures may be strongly influenced by the heat load carried by the structures through the Soret effect. After a short discussion suggestive of a heuristic model for predicting the associated energy and the heat of transport, data from several experiments are analyzed to show that the simplistic model works reasonably well with endothermic materials such as Fe and Ni, but is less successful with hydride formers. The implications of the model for tritium permeation and retention are discussed, and sample calculations are presented to illustrate the importance of properly accounting for the Soret effect in predicting tritium permeation and retention in fusion reactor structures. Neglecting the Soret effect may result in order of magnitude errors in estimating permeation and retention, while accounting for temperature sensitivity in the heat of transport will result in less significant corrections. An Appendix summarizes the development of transport equations from non-equilibrium thermodynamics to clarify the relationships between the various transport parameters involved.