Hydrogen isotope separation experience at the Savannah River Site

Conference · Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A11963812· OSTI ID:10181464

Lee, M. W.

Savannah River Site (SRS) is a sole producer of tritium for US Weapons Program. SRS has built Facilities, developed the tritium handling processes, and operated safely for the last forty years. Tritium is extracted from the irradiated reactor target, purified, mixed with deuterium, and loaded to the booster gas bottle in the weapon system for limited lifetime. Tritium is recovered from the retired bottle and recycled. Newly produced tritium is branded into the recycled tritium. One of the key process is the hydrogen isotope separation that tritium is separated from deuterium and protium. Several processes have been used for the hydrogen isotope separation at SRS: Thermal Diffusion Column (TD), Batch Cryogenic Still (CS), and Batch Chromatography called Fractional Sorption (FS). TD and CS requires straight vertical columns. The overall system separation factor depends on the length of the column. These are three story building high and difficult to put in glove box. FS is a batch process and slow operation. An improved continuous chromatographic process called Thermal Cycling Absorption Process (TCAP) has been developed. It is small enough to be about to put in a glove box yet high capacity comparable to CS. The SRS tritium purification processes can be directly applicable to the Fusion Fuel Cycle System of the fusion reactor.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-89SR18035
• OSTI ID: 10181464
• Report Number(s): WSRC-MS-93-255; CONF-930937-2; ON: DE93019832; TRN: 93:020071
• Resource Relation: Journal Volume: 27; Journal Issue: 2T; Conference: Course and workshop on tritium technology for fusion reactors, Varenna (Italy), 6-14 Sep 1993; Other Information: PBD: [1993]
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPE SEPARATION
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
TRITIUM
THERMAL DIFFUSION
CRYOGENICS
CHROMATOGRAPHY
SORPTION
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
TRITIUM PRODUCTION REACTORS
700460
220600
HEATING AND FUELING SYSTEMS
FUELS
RESEARCH
TEST
TRAINING
PRODUCTION
IRRADIATION
MATERIALS TESTING REACTORS