The storage of tritium, radioactive isotope of hydrogen: materials and aging

After some generalities on the reasons of using tritium, on the specificities of this hydrogen isotope and the interest of a solid storage, this work presents the different materials generally used. These materials studied in this work are called tritides. They all present the property of retaining 3He, product of the tritium radioactive decay, trapped in their matrix. This property allows to recover tritium which is practically free of 3He, but on the other hand, the presence of 3He, insoluble in the metal, generate some defects in the solid and induce changes of the tritides storage properties. These phenomena on the whole are called 'aging'. (O.M.)