Quantitative visualization of tritium distribution in vanadium by tritium radioluminography

Tritium luminography which measures the distribution and intensity of beta-rays emitted from tritium using an imaging plate (IP) has been applied to pure vanadium to observe the tritium distribution in it quantitatively. It was demonstrated that the tritium distribution at the microscopic area in the specimen was graphically displayed. In one case, the tritium concentration on a grain surface was about three times greater than that on a neighboring grain. The grains with (0 0 1) surface orientation had a tritium activity of 1 Bq/mm(2) while the grains with the grains with (1 1 1) orientation had 0.4 Bq/mm(2) at the present tritium charging condition. The cause of this difference in tritium concentration was due to the morphology of precipitated hydride varying in the surface orientation of the crystalline grain. For the intensity recorded in the IP, the components of the X-rays generated from tritium in the specimen was only 2%. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.