HE/sup 3/ outgassing from four working palladium and uranium beds

The He/sup 3/ output from two palladium and two uranium beds storing T/sub 2/ and D-T was studied as a function of time. Three of the beds were started new and watched for a year; the fourth bed was twelve years old. All four were beds used in routine tritium handling. Initial stoichiometries were PdT/sub 0.3/ and UT/sub 0.7/ so that both operated at similar 1 to 130 kPa pressures. The He/sup 3/ from palladium ranged from the 0.002 mo1% lower level of sensitivity to 0.01% for PdT/sub 2/ at one year of age. The UT system showed 0.1% He/sup 3/ at 4 to 62 days and 0.1 to 10% at longer times, with the first cuts being high in He/sup 3/. The palladium bed with 95 to 97% pure T/sub 2/ enriches the output to as high as 97 to 99%. 9 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs.