Study about sorption of protium and mixture protium–tritium on sponge titanium

Abstract

The Nuclear Power Plant Cernavoda is equipped with a CANDU reactor and is one of the most powerful tritium sources from Europe. The reactor is moderated and cooled with heavy water that is continuous enriched with tritium. The presence of the tritium decreases the capacity of the heavy water to moderate the nuclear reactions. For this reason, I.C.I.T. Ramnicu Valcea developed a detritiation technology based on catalytic isotopic exchange and cryogenic distillation. At the end of the detritiation process, heavy water is produced with low concentration of tritium (that could be introduced back for the moderation process) and tritium (that have to be stored into a stable form). Tritium is a radioactive material and one of the basic conditions for the operation of the nuclear installations is the security for the operating personnel and for the environment [1]. At I.C.I.T. Ramnicu Valcea were tested materials with high capacity for storage of tritium, like titanium sponge and powder. The first experimental study was made using protium because it was assumed that tritium behaves similar with protium. In addition, it was made experiments of sorption on sponge titanium using a mixture protium–tritium. The result was similar but not identical, titanium sponge absorbing better protium than mixture protium–tritium, resulting different atomic ratios. The paper presents a study about sorption of protium and mixture of protium and tritium on sponge titanium.