Isotopic water handling and hydrogen isotope recovery for fusion application using the Zr(V0.5Fe0.5)2 alloy-II : Conversion behavior under water vapor flow conditions

A follow-up is done to earlier work on the conversion of isotopic waters to hydrogen isotopes, and it involves the reaction behavior of water vapor with Zr(V{sub 0.5}Fe{sub 0.5}){sub 2} getter alloy under water vapor flow conditions. The efficiency of the alloy, for the conversion of H{sub 2}O and D{sub 2}O to H{sub 2} and D{sub 2}, respectively, has been measured at different reactor pressures in the range of 10 to 330 Pa for different alloy temperatures in the range of 150 to 400{degree}C and with hydrogen and oxygen concentrations in the alloy <=250 mmol/mol of alloy. The conversion efficiency was measured to be in the range of 25 to 35 % at reactor pressures of nearly 250 Pa for water vapor flow rates of nearly 0.3 {mu}mol/g of alloy per second, while it was found to be in the range of 70 to 80% at reactor pressures <=20 Pa with flow rates of <=0.02 {mu}mol/g of alloy per second. These experiments demonstrate the feasibility of tritiated water vapor conversion to tritium using metallic getter alloys under quasi-steady-state conditions; this feasibility is very relevant to the fusion reactor fuel cycle. 25 refs., 9 figs.