Development of hydrophobic Pt catalyst KNOITS for oxidation of tritium at room temperature

Iwai, Yasunori; Sato, Katsumi; Kubo, Hitoshi*; Oshima, Yusuke*; Noguchi, Hiroshi*; Taniuchi, Junichi*

Taking an accident such as loss of electric power into consideration, a hydrophobic catalyst, over which tritium and oxygen can react efficiently at room temperature, will contribute greatly to the fusion safety. Japan Atomic Energy Agency and Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. has jointly developed the hydrophobic platinum catalyst TKK-KNOITS for the oxidation of very thin tritium at room temperature. The overall reaction rate constant at room temperature for TKK-KNOITS was much larger than that for TKK-H1P, previously reported. The volume of catalytic reactor can be significantly reduced when the reactor is packed with TKK-KNOITS.