Commercial Light Water Reactor -Tritium Extraction Facility Process Waste Assessment (Project S-6091)

Abstract

The Savannah River Site (SRS) has been tasked by the Department of Energy (DOE) to design and construct a Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) to process irradiated tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) from a Commercial Light Water Reactor (CLWR). The plan is for the CLWR-TEF to provide tritium to the SRS Replacement Tritium Facility (RTF) in Building 233-H in support of DOE requirements. The CLWR-TEF is being designed to provide 3 kg of new tritium per year, from TPBARS and other sources of tritium (Ref. 1-4).The CLWR TPBAR concept is being developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The TPBAR assemblies will be irradiated in a Commercial Utility light water nuclear reactor and transported to the SRS for tritium extraction and processing at the CLWR-TEF. A Conceptual Design Report for the CLWR-TEF Project was issued in July 1997 (Ref. 4).The scope of this Process Waste Assessment (PWA) will be limited to CLWR-TEF processing of CLWR irradiated TPBARs. Although the CLWR- TEF will also be designed to extract APT tritium-containing materials, they will be excluded at this time to facilitate timely development of this PWA. As with any process, CLWR-TEF waste stream characteristics will depend on process feedstock and contaminant sources. If irradiated APT tritium-containing materials are to be processed in the CLWR-TEF, this PWA should be revised to reflect the introduction of this contaminant source term.