Membrane technologies for tritium recovering in the fusion fuel cycle

Palladium and palladium-silver permeators have been obtained by coating porous ceramic tubes with a thin metal layer. Three coating techniques have been studied and characterized: sputtering, chemical electroless deposition and cold-rolling. The Pd-Ag membranes obtained by cold-rolling and annealing of thin metal foils have shown complete hydrogen selectivity and chemical and physical stability meeting the requirements of the fuel cycle applications. These rolled membranes have been tested at 300-400 deg. C with a hydrogen transmembrane pressure in the range of 100-280 kPa and hydrogen flow rates up to 2.5x10-6m3/s. By filling the Pd-Ag membranes with a catalyst selective for the water gas shift reaction, membrane reactors have been obtained for recovering hydrogen isotopes in elemental form from tritiated water. Particularly, a closed-loop process based on a Pd-Ag membrane reactor has been studied for the tritium recovery system of an ITER scale fusion reactor. (author)