Investigation of the deuterium release rate in the electric pulsed hydride injector (EPHI)

An Electric Pulsed Hydride Injector (EPHI) designed for the dosed supply of hydrogen isotopes allowing safe interim tritium storage has been developed. It can be used as an alternative to piezo-electrical valve devices of current gas puffing systems in thermonuclear installations. The generation of gas occurs by passing current pulses of appropriate duration through the active elements of the EPHI, which are made of molybdenum foils coated with a thin titanium layer. The titanium immobilizes the hydrogen in a chemically bound state. In this work experimental results on the rate of gas generation in an injector capable of handling 1 kCi of tritium or corresponding quantities of hydrogen or deuterium are presented. The data allow an estimation of the amount of titanium necessary for a technical scale device such as required for ITER. (authors)