Experiences with decontaminating tritium-handling apparatus

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:10143495

Maienschein, J L; Garcia, F; Garza, R G; Kanna, R L; Mayhugh, S R; Taylor, D T

Tritium-handling apparatus has been decontaminated as part of the shutdown of the LLNL Tritium Facility. Two stainless-steel gloveboxes that had been used to process lithium deuteride-tritide (LiDT) salt were decontaminated using the Portable Cleanup System so that they could be flushed with room air through the facility ventilation system. Further surface decontamination was performed by scrubbing the interior with paper towels and ethyl alcohol or Swish{trademark}. The surface contamination, as shown by swipe surveys, was reduced from 4{times}10{sup 4}--10{sup 6} disintegrations per minute (dpm)/cm{sup 2} to 2{times}10{sup 2}--4{times}10{sup 4} dpm/cm{sup 2}. Details on the decontamination operation are provided. A series of metal (palladium and vanadium) hydride storage beds have been drained of tritium and flushed with deuterium in order to remove as much tritium as possible. The bed draining and flushing procedure is described, and a calculational method is presented which allows estimation of the tritium remaining in a bed after it has been drained and flushed. Data on specific bed draining and flushing are given.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 10143495
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC--106504; CONF-910920--30; ON: DE92013005
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052001
054000
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
DECONTAMINATION
GLOVEBOXES
HEALTH AND SAFETY
LITHIUM DEUTERIDES
PALLADIUM HYDRIDES
STORAGE
TRITIDES
TRITIUM
VANADIUM HYDRIDES
VENTILATION SYSTEMS
WASTE PROCESSING