Development of a low tritium partial pressure permeation system for mass transport measurement in lead lithium eutectic

A new experimental system designed to investigate tritium mass transfer properties in materials important to fusion technology is operational at the Safety and Tritium Applied Research (STAR) facility located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The tritium permeation measurement system was developed as part of the Japan/US TITAN collaboration to investigate tritium mass transfer properties in liquid lead lithium eutectic (LLE) alloy. The system is similar to a hydrogen/deuterium permeation measurement system developed at Kyushu University and also incorporates lessons learned from previous tritium permeation experiments conducted at the STAR facility. This paper describes the experimental system that is configured specifically to measure tritium mass transfer properties at low tritium partial pressures. We present preliminary tritium permeation results for α-Fe and α-Fe/LLE samples at 600degC and at tritium partial pressures between 1.0E-3 and 2.4 Pain helium. The preliminary results are compared with literature data. (author)