A probability model: Tritium release into the coolant of a light water tritium production reactor

Abstract

This report presents a probability model of the total amount of tritium that will be released from a core of tritium target rods into the coolant of a light water reactor during a tritium production cycle.The model relates the total tritium released from a core to the release characteristics of an individual target rod within the core. The model captures total tritium release from two sources-release via target rod breach and release via permeation through the target rod. Specifically, under conservative assumptions about the breach characteristics of a target rod, total tritium released from a core is modeled as a function of the probability of a target breach and the mean and standard deviation of the permeation reduction factor (PRF) of an individual target rod. Two dominant facts emerge from the analysis in this report. First, total tritium release cannot be controlled and minimized solely through the PRF characteristics of a target rod. Tritium release via breach must be abated if acceptable tritium production is to be achieved. Second, PRF values have a saturation point to their effectiveness. Specifically, in the presence of any realistic level of PRF variability, increasing PRF values above approximately 1000 wig contribute little to minimizing total tritium release.