Titanium tritide radioisotope heat source development : palladium-coated titanium hydriding kinetics and tritium loading tests.

Van Blarigan, Peter ; Shugard, Andrew D. ; Walters, R. Tom (Savannah River National Labs, Aiken, SC)

关键词: 07 ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES;    ABSORPTION;    COATINGS;    DIFFUSION;    HYDROGEN;    HYDROGEN ISOTOPES;    KINETICS;    PALLADIUM;    RADIOISOTOPE HEAT SOURCES;    TITANIUM;    TRITIDES;    TRITIUM NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1035341
RP-ID  :  SAND2012-0232
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1035341
Others  :  TRN: US1201135

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来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

We have found that a 180 nm palladium coating enables titanium to be loaded with hydrogen isotopes without the typical 400-500 C vacuum activation step. The hydriding kinetics of Pd coated Ti can be described by the Mintz-Bloch adherent film model, where the rate of hydrogen absorption is controlled by diffusion through an adherent metal-hydride layer. Hydriding rate constants of Pd coated and vacuum activated Ti were found to be very similar. In addition, deuterium/tritium loading experiments were done on stacks of Pd coated Ti foil in a representative-size radioisotope heat source vessel. The experiments demonstrated that such a vessel could be loaded completely, at temperatures below 300 C, in less than 10 hours, using existing department-of-energy tritium handling infrastructure.