The Behaviour of Zirconium-Cobalt as a Material for Tritium Storage

The Tritium Storage facility of the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK), was recently upgraded by four additional uranium beds and one containing ZrCo. Now it is possible to compare under very similar conditions the sorption/desorption properties of uranium and those of ZrCo. To test the adequacy of ZrCo for routine, the getter was folly disproportionated repeatedly using either protium, deuterium or tritium. In all cases was it possible to completely restore the original sorption/desorption properties of the getter. In view of the needs of the Storage and Delivery System (SDS) of the ITER-FEAT Tritium Plant, i.e. delivery of T₂ 90% - D₂ 10% and pure D₂ to generate mixtures of various compositions, the isotope effects during sorption/desorption cycles of H-D and D-T mixtures in ZrCo granules have been investigated. A transportable storage vessel identical to those containing uranium presently used at TLK for the transport of tritium has been designed, build and filled with ZrCo. These beds fit into the highly sensitive calorimeters available at TLK. With these beds the tritium permanently trapped in U and ZrCo can be compared under similar operation conditions.