Supply of a Steady-State Gas Permeameter

As part of the DESNZ AMR Programme, the NNL graphite matrix compact production pilot plant will be producing graphite compact material in the near future. Following the production of this material it will be necessary to characterize the produced samples, to assess both the quality of manufacture and the suitability of the graphite compact material for its intended future application.

One of the material properties that will be measured on these produced samples will be gas permeability. Gas permeability is the physical property which represents how easily gasses can pass through a given material and is important for understanding the propagation of fission gases. It is this property can provide insight into the oxidation behaviour of graphite, as well as likely contamination of graphite post generation.

Although equipment already exists to perform this within NNL, a capability to perform these measurements in the non-active Workington laboratory is required. Therefore, the procurement of a permeameter, suitable for measuring the gas permeability properties of a range of graphite materials is necessary. Further information can be found in the Procurement Specification - Appendix A.