A New Hydrogen Processing Development System

Abstract

The design of many of the process systems at the Savannah River Site (SRS) Tritium Facilities were developed at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in the 1980’s and early 1990’s for Cold War production requirements. Most of the process systems developed used cold (non-radioactive) test systems to reduce the cost of developing pilot and full-scale test systems. The metal hydride (MH) based process technologies developed for the Replacement Tritium Facility (RTF) allowed tritium process equipment to be confined in tritium stripped glovebox systems which greatly reduced tritium emissions to the public. Facility start-up in 1994 was considered state-of-the art technology for the world’s largest metal hydride based tritium process facility. The end of the Cold War reduced production requirements, but increased maintenance is needed for the 20 year old process systems. The Hydrogen Processing Development System (HPDS) is a new, non-radiological R&D system to be built for testing and demonstrating improved process systems for SRS Tritium Facilities. Experience gained from facility operations and new concepts from fusion fuel cycle development programs will be used to develop improved processes and restore base capabilities of the SRS Tritium Facilities. The HPDS will be designed to test systems such as a Revised Unloading Purification System (RUPS), an optimized advanced storage and isotope separation (OASIS) System, a Reduced Area Confinement and WAter Processing (RACWAP) System, and some components of a separate breeding and extraction program. New processes would retain the desirable features of the current/existing technologies while creating “right-sized” and flexible advanced or hybrid system to meet current and future tritium processing needs. Testing in the HPDS will reduce the cost and risk of deploying new technologies into the SRS tritium production process.