Desorption behavior of carrier free tritium from the inner surface of a glass ampoule]

The desorption behavior of tritium from the glass ampoule which originally contained 37 GBq of carrier free tritium gas was studied by etching the surface with a diluted hydrofluoric acid solution or by heating at the constant rate up to 800 degrees C. The total amount of tritium sorbed on the inner surface of the ampoule was found to be 3.9 +/- 0.7 GBq. This value corresponded to more than 10% of tritium contained in the ampoule. The release rate of tritiated water (HTO) was 2.3 kBq/cm2.min, and the amount of HTO desorbed was strongly depended on the atmosphere. Thus, special precaution should be paid to the processing of a vessel once containing such an amount of tritium.