THE EFFECT OF HELIUM GROWTH AND CARBON IMPURITIES ON THE PROPERTIES OF AGED METAL TRITIDES

The interaction of tritium with metals is made complex by two phenomen a. The beta decay in the metal produces He-3. The helium moves to form bubbles. We shall show that the growth of the bubbles produces a two stage swelling of the metal coming first from the appearance of the he lium and second from the relaxation of the lattice disorder caused by the bubble growth. The second phenomenon is the steady state ion and f ree radical concentration in the tritium over gas which interacts with impurities on the metal surface. We shall show that the reaction rate s are much faster than for normal hydrogen cleaning.