Uranium beds for temporary tritium storage

A programme was carried out to establish the factors which control the loading rate of tritium gas onto uranium metal beds in closed systems and to develop an engineering database which can be used to design equipment for commercial use. Gas loading tests were conducted on a simple 15 g bed. Factors which influence the loading rate are the gas overpressure, the initial bed capacity, the bed temperature, the bed orientation, the helium content of the gas stream and the in-line filter pore size.