Tritium Extraction Facility Research Articles

Effectiveness of Bronze as a Zinc Getter After Being Subjected to Simulated Exposures

Gamma-emitting zinc-65 was detected in piping contained in a tritium glovebox after a vacuum thermal process. This contaminate was created during irradiation of components in a nuclear reactor and was borne of natural zinc. The Tritium Extraction Facility prefers to capture the zinc in a high radiation area to minimize potential dose to the worker and to reduce the likelihood of spreading contamination to other areas of the facility. Previous efforts have shown that bronze is an excellent candidate material to act as a zinc getter in the as-fabricated condition. In reality, the extraction process may contain moisture and hydrogen which could cause oxidation or reduction of the surfaces of the zinc getters. A series of experiments was conducted to determine the efficacy of the zinc getters after oxidation and reduction exposures. It was determined that the bronze coupons were moderately effective in most of the oxidized conditions and in all the oxidized and reduced conditions.

Portfolio Selection Methodology for a Nuclear Project

It is difficult to evaluate complex, publicly sensitive nuclear project proposals. Scientists, subject matter experts, politicians, and citizens often differ on scope, budget, time, and quality priorities. There are numerous qualitative factors and quantitative variables. Experts could widely disagree on criteria or neglect to discriminate between seemingly identical alternatives. An ineffective portfolio selection method could lead to safety problems, budget overruns, or outright project failures. This case study develops and examines a mixed-method, integrated qualitative and quantitative portfolio selection model, applied to a “tritium extraction facility” project concept.

An Unsteady Dual Porosity Representation of Tritium Leaching from Buried Concrete Rubble

Decontamination and decommissioning at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, SC, have produced on‐site disposals of low‐level solid radioactive waste in the form of concrete rubble. In the case of a former tritium extraction facility, building demolition produced a significant volume of rubble containing tritium. The contaminated debris comprises a heterogeneous mixture of coarse aggregate sizes, shapes, and internal tritium distributions. The rubble was disposed in unlined earthen trenches that were subsequently backfilled and exposed to normal infiltration. To forecast tritium flux to the water table, an unsteady dual‐porosity model was developed to describe vadose zone leaching and transport. Tritium release was assumed to be controlled by diffusion within concrete, while advective and diffusive transport occur in the surrounding backfill. Rubble size and shape variations were characterized through a combination of physical measurement and photographic image analysis. For simplicity, the characterization data were reduced to an approximately equivalent distribution of one‐dimensional slab thicknesses for representation in the dual‐porosity formulation. Tritium flux to the water table from concrete rubble was predicted to be roughly 40% of that from uniformly contaminated soil. The lower flux is a result of slow release to soil pore water and a reduced effective trench conductivity from the presence of impervious concrete. At early times, tritium release from concrete in the lower trench is depressed by downward migration of tritium from overlying material. The pattern reverses at later times, when tritium is largely exhausted in the upper trench but higher residuals occupy the lower trench.

2.1.2 Application of the Systems Engineering Approach to the Tritium Extraction Facility Design

AbstractThe Commercial Light Water Reactor ‐ Tritium Extraction Facility is being designed and built as a tritium processing facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. When built it will be the only facility processing tritium in the United States. The design of this facility required some equipment to be designed as ‘one of a kind‘. The Systems Engineering (SE) approach was applied to define the functions and requirements necessary to design and operate the facility. The SE approach for the Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) was a major effort encompassing Requirements Analysis, Risk Management, Interface Control, and supporting plans and documentation for the facility and 23 major systems. This paper will describe the SE approach in general and give examples of selected Functions and Requirements (F&Rs) supporting the TEF design. Also presented will be advantages of using the SE approach on the design of the TEF and observations made during the design process.

Concept of a tritium extraction facility for a reprocessing plant

There are several alternatives for reducing the release of tritium to the environment originating from the wastewater of a reprocessing plant. Such alternatives, which are applicable for sites not located by the sea or by large rivers, are limited to either injection of tritiated wastewater into suitable deep geological formations, or final disposal into a deep underground repository after adequate treatment similar to other low and intermediate active waste. Removal of tritium from the wastewater by enrichment represents a further feasible option of the second alternative, which allows reduction of the huge volume of tritiated water to be treated before disposal. A significant volume reduction increases the safety of the subsequent steps such as transport, interim storage and final disposal of tritiated waste, furthermore, decreases the corresponding overall waste management cost. The projected Wackersdorf reprocessing plant has been considered as a reference for assessing the permitted tritium releases and other site characteristics.

The Tritium Extraction Facility at the Institute Laue-Langevin Experience of Operation with Tritium

AbstractThe Tritium Extraction Facility at the Institut LAUE - LANGEVIN, GRENOBLE, FRANCE, is the first facility combining the extraction of tritium and hydrogen from heavy water. This Tritium Extr...