The EK-181 and Eurofer steel samples were saturated in gaseous deuterium at 200°C and a pressure of 5 atm for 25 h. The effect of sample storage conditions (in vacuum or in air) on the deuterium release from EK-181 and Eurofer steels was studied. The deuterium retention was examined by thermal desorption spectroscopy after storage from several days to one and a half years after the samples were saturated with deuterium. The EK-181 steel samples contained 3.5–6 times more deuterium than the Eurofer steel samples. After one and a half years of storage, the deuterium retention decreased by 1.5–3 times in EK-181 steel and by 3–4 times in Eurofer steel. For the EK-181 steel samples, no unambiguous conclusion can be made about the effect of storage conditions on the deuterium release from the material. Deuterium releases more slowly from the Eurofer steel samples if they were stored in a vacuum. Time dependences of the deuterium retention under different storage conditions were obtained.
Golubeva et al. (2025) studied this question.