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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
W. A. Swansiger
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 631-636
Tritium Properties and Interactions with Material | Proceedings of the Third Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 1-6, 1988) | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25205
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An apparatus and technique were developed to measure the solubility of tritium in high diffusivity metals at tritium pressures up to 136 MPa (20,000 psia) and temperatures up to 700 K. The experiments described in this paper took advantage of the low detection limits for tritium and helium-3 to determine the solubilities of high pressure tritium in copper and gold at temperatures as low as 473 K, where solubilities are below the limits of detection for hydrogen or deuterium. Samples were exposed to high pressure tritium at an elevated temperature long enough to reach equilibrium, then cooled within seconds by dropping them into a cold (77 K) section of the apparatus, thereby immobilizing the dissolved tritium. Solubilities were then determined by acid dissolution/liquid scintillation counting or, alternatively, by vacuum fusion/helium-3 analysis. For both copper and gold, surface effects were found to be extremely important because (1) they greatly increased the time required for the samples to equilibrate with the tritium overpressure and (2) there was more tritium on and near the surface than was contained in the bulk of a sample. In the absence of trapping, the solubilities determined at high pressures at temperatures between 473 K and 673 K agreed well with extrapolations of solubilities measured at 0.1 MPa hydrogen and temperatures >873 K. Gold annealed at 1273 K in air exhibited much higher apparent solubilities than samples annealed at 873 K in air or vacuum, an effect tentatively attributed to trapping by oxygen which diffused into the sample during the high temperature annealing treatment.