Deuterium retention in ITER-grade austenitic stainless steel

In view of the construction of ITER, it is essential to confirm that the retention of tritium by the large interior surface area of stainless steel will not become an issue for safety or operating inventory reasons. Retention of deuterium in ITER-grade austenitic stainless steel samples was studied during t = 24 h exposures to pure gaseous deuterium at p = 0.01 mbar and 0.1 mbar and T = 100 °C, 250 °C and 400 °C, respectively. The required high sensitivity for distinguishing hydrogen isotopes involved in the process (H2, HD and D2) was gained after suppression of the native hydrogen concentration by a thermal treatment at T = 400 °C for t = 200 h. The quantity of retained deuterium was determined by measuring the absolute pressure change during the deuterium exposure and subsequent mass spectrometry revealing an intense isotope exchange reaction. The retained amount of 2.6 × 1016 D cm−2 was the highest at T = 400 °C and p = 0.1 mbar and noticeably less at lower deuterium pressure and temperature. Our results, when compared with similar tritium exposures, do not exceed the limits set in the generic safety analysis for the ITER. They manifest that an extremely high sensitivity for deuterium absorption and release can be gained with a precise pressure measuring technique, otherwise attributed exclusively to tritium scintillation methods.