Recovery of tritium from yttrium getters

The sorption of tritium on yttrium from molten lithium and the subsequent release of tritium from yttrium for regeneration of the metal sorbent were investigated to evaluate the feasibility of such a tritium-recovery process for a fusion reactor blanket of liquid lithium. Tritium sorption from molten lithium was studied in a batch contactor using metal sorbent samples of yttrium. With an yttrium-surface-area-to-lithium-volume ratio of 0.9 cm/sup -1/ and a temperature of 400/sup 0/C, the concentration of tritium in lithium was reduced by a factor of 2 in 50 min. Using the tritium concentration in the lithium as a driving force, the effective film mass transfer coefficient was 3 x 10/sup -4/ cm/sec. The tritium release rate was measured from a sample of yttrium (9.0 ppM tritium content) at 505/sup 0/C. After 21 hr at this low temperature, 0.15% of the tritium was released.