A METER FOR MEASURING HYDROGEN CONCENTRATION IN ARGON COVER GAS OF SODIUM CIRCUITS - DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Monitoring of hydrogen in argon cover gas is one of the effective meth ods used to detect an event of steam/water leakage into sodium in the steam generators of a fast reactor during its startup and low-power op eration. A diffusion-based hydrogen meter employing a thermal conducti vity detector (TCD) and argon as carrier gas is a simple, convenient, and inexpensive device for this purpose. This paper describes the fund amental criteria involved in designing such meters and experimental re sults obtained during the calibration of two such meters.