Permeation behavior of tritium through F82H steel

Oyaizu, Makoto; Isobe, Kanetsugu; Nakamura, Hirofumi; Hayashi, Takumi; Yamanishi, Toshihiko

The tritium permeation behavior through F82H steel from carrier-free tritiated water vapor was investigated and the difference between as-received sample surface and that after the permeation experiments were analyzed by means of SEM, EDX and XRD. As the results, the permeability of tritium through F82H steel from tritiated water vapor is two to three orders of magnitude smaller than that from gaseous hydrogen. A thick and porous iron oxide layer composed of hematite and magnetite was formed in the permeation experiments. These results indicate that the oxide layer would hardly work as tritium permeation barrier, and that gaseous hydrogen could be generated by the redox reaction of water on the sample surface. Therefore, it could be considered that the tritium permeation through F82H steel from tritiated water vapor could result from the partial pressure of T.