Hydrogen isotope technology

Hydrogen pumping speeds on panels of molecular sieve types 5A and Na-Y were compared for a variety of sieve (and chevron) temperatures between 10 and 30 K. Although pumping speeds declined with time, probably because of the slow diffusion of hydrogen from the surface of the sieve crystals into the internal regions, the different sieve materials and operating conditions could be compared using time-averaged pump speeds. The (average) pumping speeds declined with increasing temperature. Under some conditions, the Na-Y sieve performed much better than the 5A sieve. Studies of the effect of small concentrations (approx. 4%) of hydrogen on helium pumping indicate that compound cryopumps in fusion reactors will not have to provide complete screening of hydrogen from helium panels. The concentrations of hydrogen did not lower effective helium pumping speeds or shorten the helium operating period between instabilities. Studies of tritium recovery from blankets of liquid lithium focused on design and construction of a flowing-lithium test system and on ultimate removal of tritium from yttrium sorbents. At 5050C, tritium release from yttrium behaves as a diffusion-controlled process, but the release rates are very low. Apparently, higher temperatures will be required for effective sorbent regeneration. An innovative technique for separating hydrogen isotopes by using bipolar electrolysis with permeable electrodes was analyzed to determine its potential usefulness in multistage separation