Test of the palladium diffuser in the JAERI Fuel Cleanup System in the Tritium Systems Test Assembly

The JAERI Fuel Cleanup System (JFCU) is a major subsystem of the TSTA simulated fusion fuel loop. The palladium diffuser, that accepts simulated plasma exhaust and purifies the hydrogen isotopes mixture for the feed to the Isotope Separation System, was tested with deuterium to investigate the characteristics of the components. Permeation flow rate is a linear function of the difference of the square root of the pressure across the palladium alloy membrane. However at the low pressure region, an impediment on the permeation was observed. It was suspected to be caused by the impurity adsorbed on the surface of the permeated side of the membrane and was reduced by oxidation treatment. (author)