Observation of tritium distribution in iron oxide with tritium micro autoradiography

To clarify the tritium permeation behavior, tritium distribution in iron oxidized in high temperature water was observed with tritium micro autoradiography. It was found that tritium was distributed homogeneously in the iron metal. However the oxide surface (magnetite) was found to contain a very low concentration of tritium. The inner layer of oxide could strongly effect the tritium permeation. From a comparison with the permeation experiment that had been reported in Ref. 1, it was suggested that tritium would mainly diffuse other path except the oxide lattice. According to the chemical form of tritium, which was released from iron surface into water, two assumptions were suggested. One is based on the different combination of tritium on the water-surface interface. The other is based on the oxidation mechanism.