Application of Nonporous Alumina Based Ceramics as Structural Material for Devices Handling Tritium at Elevated Temperatures

The article presents results of comparative tests for the determination of deuterium fluxes permeating through walls of austenitic stainless steel AISI304 (DIN 1.4301) chamber and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} based ceramic F99.7 chamber. Both chambers represent a piece of φ(ext)=26*φ(int)=22*117 mm{sup 3} tube with spherical bottom ending. It is shown that at 773 K and deuterium pressure of 1200 mbar the permeated deuterium flux through the stainless steel chamber constituted 8*10{sup -5} cm{sup 3}/s, while the flux through ceramic one it did not exceed the sensitivity of the measurement method threshold, namely about 1.5*10{sup -7} cm{sup 3}/s. The ceramic chamber turned out to survive more than 10{sup 3} cycles of heating up to 773 K with no damages. It did not lose its tightness up to 10 bar of internal deuterium pressure. The authors also present test results of a prototype bed for reversible tritium storage. The bed's case was made of alumina based ceramic F99.7, titanium being used as tritide making metal and high frequency induction used for heating the tritide metal. (authors)