Tritium aging effects on hydrogen permeation through Pd8.5Y0.19Ru alloy membrane

Palladium alloy membranes have been widely used as permeator to produce pure tritium from gas mixture or tritiated impurities in tritium technology related to fusion reactor. But long term continuous operation will lead to accumulation of 3 He in alloy, resulting in tritium aging effects. In this work, the changes in protium/deuterium permeation characteristics of Pd8.5Y0.19Ru (at.%) alloy membrane with (3)He concentration of 0.042 (He/M) induced by tritium decay was investigated. In the temperature range 573 K-723 K the permeability of the aged membrane decrease seriously, and the permeation separation factor for H-D mixture increase somewhat. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.