Application of tritium tracer techniques to observation of hydrogen on surface and in bulk of F82H

Hydrogen including a trace amount of tritium was loaded on the edge surface of an F82H rod. After the loading, the rod was held at 298 or 323 K to allow hydrogen diffuse in and release out. Tritium tracer techniques have been applied to determine hydrogen depth profiles and hydrogen release rates by using an tritium imaging plate technique and a liquid scintillation counting technique, respectively. The depth profiles were composed of a surface localized component within 200 μm of the surface and a diffused component extending over 1 mm in depth. The apparent hydrogen diffusion coefficients obtained from the depth profile of the diffused component are near the extrapolated value of the literature data determined at higher temperatures. The surface localized component, which is attributed to trapping at surface oxides and/or defects, was released very slowly to give apparent diffusion coefficients much smaller than those determined from the diffused component.