Non-Destructive Measurement of Amount of Tritium by Bremsstrahlung Counting

To establish techniques for in-situ and non-destructive measurement of a large amount of tritium gas, we examined the bremsstrahlung counting method of determine the amount of tritium in glass or aluminum alloy tubes. The wall thickness of glass tubes used was 0.5, 1.0, 1.2, 1.5 and 2.0 mm, and that of aluminum ally tube was 1.0 mm. The outer diameter of each tube was 10 mm. The pressure of tritium in the tubes was controlled in a range from 2 to 160 Torr, which corresponds to a range from 40 mCi to 3.5 Ci. It was observed that the counting rate of the bremsstrahlung X-rays was proportional to the pressure or the amount of tritium gas in the tubes. The half-thickness varied from 40 to 140 mg/cm2, depending on the wall thickness of the glass tubes used in the present study. However, the present results indicate that the bremsstrahlung counting method is applicable to in-situ and non-destructive measurements of a large amount of tritium gas in the tritium handling systems