Investigation of Aluminised Steel as a Barrier to Tritium Using Accelerator-Based and Hydrogen Permeation Techniques

Aluminised steel has been proposed as a barrier to T permeation in fusion reactors. The properties of these materials as T barriers have been studied using accelerator-based techniques and H permeation methods. The aluminide layer has been characterised by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) techniques using the 3 MV Dynamitron accelerator based at the School of Physics and Space Research Radiation Centre. The effectiveness of the aluminide layer as a T barrier has been measured directly by a conventional permeation apparatus over a range of temperatures. The effect of high temperatures on the structure of the aluminide layer has been examined. Any correlation between the composition of the layer and its effectiveness as a T barrier is also discussed. 14 ref.--AA