Experimental study on the delivery rate and recovery rate of ZrCo hydride for ITER application

To investigate the key design aspects of the storage and delivery system (SDS) bed in ITER, rates of a hydriding, de-hydriding and isotope effects on the H/D composition during a rapid delivery were experimentally investigated by using small tube-type reactors with different packing heights. Hydrogen recovery times for a shorter packing-height bed (20-40 mm) decreased exponentially with an increasing initial hydrogen pressure, but increased by approximately two orders of a magnitude in a longer packing-height bed (145 mm). De-hydriding rate increases exponentially with an increase in the relative heating area per unit weight of ZrCo powder and decreases in the packing-height of ZrCo hydride. Continuous isotopic compositional change inevitably occurs during the entire delivery time due to the known isotope effect in the metal-hydrogen systems. To overcome the isotope effect during a delivery from the SDS beds, an alternative operation method was suggested for the fuel supply from the SDS. (authors)