Evidence for tritium production in the Pd/D system under cathodic pola
rization is presented. A comparison of the observed distribution and t
hat calculated, based on the conservation of mass, leads to the conclu
sion that tritium is produced sporadically at an estimated rate of sim
ilar to 10(3) to 10(4) atom/s. The results of several runs are interpr
eted by employing the concept of an electrode/electrolyte interphase a
nd the accepted kinetics of hydrogen evolution. Burstlike events follo
wed by longer periods of inactivity yield poor reproducibility when di
stributions are averaged over the total time of electrolysis.