Tritium contamination and decontamination of sealing oil for vacuum pump
- Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka (Japan)
- ATOX Co. Ltd, Technoly Development Center, Kashiwa, Chiba (Japan)
The existence of tritium-contaminated oils from vacuum pumps used in tritium facilities, is becoming an important issue since there is no disposal way for tritiated waste oils. On recovery of tritiated water vapor in gas streams, it is well-known that the isotope exchange reaction between the gas phase and the liquid phase occurs effectively at room temperature. We have carried out experiments using bubbles to examine the tritium contamination and decontamination of a volume of rotary-vacuum-pump oil. The contamination of the pump oil was made by bubbling tritiated water vapor and tritiated hydrogen gas into the oil. Subsequently the decontamination was processed by bubbling pure water vapor and dry argon gas into the tritiated oil. Results show that the water vapor bubbling was more effective than dry argon gas. The experiment also shows that the water vapor bubbling in an oil bottle can remove and transfer tritium efficiently from the tritiated oil into another water-bubbling bottle.
- OSTI ID:
- 22429775
- Journal Information:
- Fusion Science and Technology, Vol. 67, Issue 3; Conference: TRITIUM 2013: 10. International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology, Nice Acropolis (France), 21-25 Oct 2013; Other Information: Country of input: France; 6 refs.; ISSN 1536-1055
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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