A ceramic container for hydrogen purification on hot uranium

One option for the purification of a hydrogen isotope gas mixture is the retention of impurities on hot-metal bed reactors, preferably uranium, through formation of oxides, carbides and nitrides. For these processes high temperatures of up to 9000C are required. In this temperature range, problems like eutectics between uranium and stainless steel arise and inacceptably high permeation of hydrogen through metallic walls occurs. A promising solution to these problems is the use of alumina as a ceramic structure material for the wall of the uranium container. At KfK such a high temperature reactor bed was designed. (author)