Modified cryogenic distillation for tritium enrichment in the tritium accountancy system of helium cooled ceramic breeding test blanket system

Abstract

Given the prevalence of scenarios involving low-abundance and large-volume hydrogen isotope batch separation in the tritium extraction and enrichment for fusion reactors, as well as the deuterization of tritiated water in nuclear power plants or fusion reactors, it is imperative to develop a more efficient enrichment and separation process to meet this demand. Consequently, this paper proposes a “quasi-continuous distillation” coupled with batch distillation for the batch enrichment and separation of low-tritium-concentrated hydrogen isotope gases, involved in the tritium accountancy system (TAS) of Helium-Cooled Ceramic Breeding blanket (HCCB-TBS), as an input. The design of this separation process addressed a feed with a tritium concentration of 18 ppm and approximately 5.8 Nm3 of hydrogen isotope gas. The feasibility of this separation process was successfully verified through tritium verification experiment.