Experimental evaluation of tritium permeation through stainless steel tubes of heat exchanger from primary to secondary water in ITER

• Published in: Journal of nuclear materials Vol. 329; pp. 183 - 187
• Main Authors: Nakamura, Hirofumi, Nishi, Masataka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.08.2004
• Subjects: S0500; P0100; T0900
• ISSN: 0022-3115; 1873-4820
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2004.04.009

Tritium permeation through heat exchanger from primary cooling water to secondary cooling water has been investigated experimentally with SS316L heat exchanger under simulated ITER (international thermonuclear experimental reactor) operation condition in order to establish the tritium permeation evaluation method through the heat exchanger. As the result, the permeation rate of aqueous tritium was found to be about three orders smaller than that of the gaseous tritium. Tritium permeation through the heat exchanger in ITER was then evaluated, and it was revealed that total tritium permeation amount based on obtained aqueous permeability was about one order less than that with the former method with the gaseous permeability and putting the permeation reduction factor as 1000. Evaluated tritium permeation amount into secondary water during 20 years was quite small, which could be considered as negligible from the safety viewpoint.