Cryosorption vacuum pumping of hydrogen and helium mixtures

Cryosorption vacuum pumps continue to be the principal type of pumping systems considered for power-producing fusion reactors. In this context, a compound-pump concept is generally employed in which the helium pump is placed behind the hydrogen pump so that hydrogen will not condense on and hence block the 4.2 K helium cryosorption surface. To obtain an optimal design for such a pump, the amount of hydrogen which can reach the helium panel has been determined. Catastrophic failure of a cryosorption pump was observed in previous work when a 95% hydrogen-5% helium mixture was tested. No such failure has occurred in our studies with 4, 10, and 20% hydrogen. However, significant changes in pumping speed have been noted when only 4% hydrogen is present. Both helium and hydrogen speeds are reduced to approximately one-half to one-third of the pure compound speed. Many of the qualitative aspects of the behavior of the pump for pure helium are also observed for the hydrogen-helium mixtures. Cyclic variation in pumping speed above a helium feed rate of approx. 6 x 10-6 torr-L/s.cm2 is one such similarity; however, at the 4% hydrogen level, the period between instabilities is longer for the mixtures