Hydriding Performance in a Uranium Bed depending on the Initial Bed Temperatures and Helium Contents

Abstract

>> Korea has been developing nuclear fusion fuel storage and delivery system (SDS) technologies including a basic scientific study on hydrogen storage. To develop nuclear fusion technology, it is necessary to store and supply hydrogen isotopes needed for Tokamak operation. SDS is used for storing hydrogen isotopes as a metal hydride form. The rapid hydriding of tritium is very important not only for safety reasons but also for the economic design and operation of the SDS. In this study, we designed and fabricated a medium-scale getter bed of depleted uranium (DU). The hydriding of DU has been measured by varying the initial temperature (100 -300℃) of the DU getter bed to investigate the influence of the cooling temperature. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect of a helium blanket on the hydriding performance with 0 -12% helium content in hydrogen.