Development of depleted uranium bed for tritium fuel cycle and basic absorption/desorption experiments

For the safe and efficient operation of a storage and delivery system in a tritium plant for a fusion fuel cycle, a metal hydride bed for recovery and delivery of hydrogen isotope gas is essential. To develop a metal hydride bed for a fusion fuel cycle, and to validate the process performance of a depleted uranium hydride bed, a large scale experimental bed that considers the safe handling and uniform distribution of depleted uranium was newly designed and fabricated. To establish the activation procedure of this new bed, a number of absorption/desorption cycles necessary to reach saturated storage capacity was studied. Hydrogen desorption experiments that validate the feasibility of delivery without vacuum pumping were also investigated, and more than 95% hydrogen from UH2.9 was successfully delivered.