ViMA -- the spinning rotor gauge to measure the viscosity of tritium between 77 and 300 K

TL;DR

This paper introduces ViMA, a specialized spinning rotor gauge designed to measure the viscosity of radioactive tritium gas from 80 K to 300 K, addressing a gap in experimental data for applications in fusion and physics.

Contribution

It presents a novel, tritium-compatible measurement apparatus capable of accurately determining viscosity over a wide temperature range.

Findings

First experimental viscosity values for tritium in the specified range

Demonstrates safe and contamination-free measurement techniques

Provides data useful for fusion and neutrino physics applications

Abstract

Experimental values for the viscosity of the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium (T$_2$) are currently unavailable in literature. The value of this material property over a wide temperature range is of interest for applications in the field of fusion, neutrino physics, as well as to test ab initio calculations. As a radioactive gas, tritium requires careful experiment design to ensure safe and environmental contamination free measurements. In this contribution, we present a spinning rotor gauge based, tritium compatible design of a gas viscosity measurement apparatus (ViMA) capable of covering the temperature range from 80 K to 300 K.