Characteristics of Uranium-Hydrogen System

Nuclear fusion energy is considered one of the main energy sources for the future. Some countries, including Korea, are participating in the development of technologies used in nuclear fusion energy. Tritium and deuterium, which is a hydrogen isotope, is nuclear fusion fuel. To develop nuclear fusion technology, it will be necessary to store and supply hydrogen isotopes for a Tokamak operation because hydrogen isotope storage and delivery system (SDS) technologies have been studied for the storage and delivery of nuclear fusion fuels and other gases. SDS is used for storing hydrogen isotopes in a metal hydride form. A metal hydride bed, which is a key sub-system of an SDS, substantively performs the storage and delivery of nuclear fuels closely connected with the metal hydride bed. There have been many promising candidate materials, including zirconium cobalt (ZrCo), uranium (U), titanium (Ti), and lanthanum pentanickel (LaNi5), for the storage and delivery of hydrogen isotopes [1]. These materials have been extensively and widely studied for optimum SDS applications. Among these materials, uranium is chosen as a hydrogen isotope storage material for this study. Uranium will form a hydride phase when exposed to molecular hydrogen. Some aspects of uranium with a hydrogen system have been characterized much less extensively than other common metal hydrides, particularly palladium with hydrogen, owing to radiological concerns associated with handling [2]. In this paper, the characteristics of uranium are introduced. A uranium-hydrogen system was suggested to evaluate the pressure drop by filtration, and the heat insulation by thermal reflectors. In addition, the system can be operated under high pressure and temperature conditions.