Long-Term Permeator Experiment PETRA at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe: Commissioning Tests with Tritium

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Abstract
During commissioning of the PETRA facility all components were tested singly and sequentially using hydrogen isotopes (incl. up to 1.3 g tritium as DT) and relevant impurities. The operation of the facility in conjunction with the required infrastructure systems of the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) was also demonstrated.To characterize the PETRA PdAg permeator hydrogen break-through curves for H2, De2 and DT as well as He break-through curves for various H2/D2/He gas mixtures were determined at 300 and 400 °C. A suitable method was developed to verify the mechanical integrity of the permeator during runs with tritium. The H2 and D2 permeation losses into the isolation vacuum of the permeator were quantified and compared with model calculations. Hydrogen permeation into the isolation vacuum could be kept at levels low enough to permit an undisturbed continuous operation of the permeator using a ZrCo tritium storage vessel.All pumps and pump combinations were examined with respect to the achiev...

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