Decontamination and decommissioning of UK tritium facilities

Conference · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Fusion Technology; (United States)

OSTI ID:5040233

Corcoran, V J; Campbell, C A; Bothwell, P B ^[1]

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1. AWEA Aldermaston, Reading RG74 PR (GB)

Current UK strategy for decommissioning stainless steel plant used for tritium containment centers on heating/melting the bulk metal to effect release of dissolved gases. However, hydrogen isotope containment vessels used for approximately 20 years with mercury pumps and exposed to air and water impurities, exhibit tritium burdens greatly exceeding those predicted by simple gas solution in the parent metal. Investigation into the location of, and activity release from, the vessel material indicate the bulk metal where in-depth contamination arises from diffusion/solution; and a highly active surface layer, responsible for holding the main tritium inventory. The relatively rapid release of tritium from the surface layer at room temperature, particularly under moist conditions demands that this latter activity must be removed before plant dismantling and heating/melting is effected. This paper reports the effect of wet outgassing primary containments and the effect of heating/melting on tritium burdens in stainless steel.

• OSTI ID: 5040233
• Report Number(s): CONF-910920--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Fusion Technology; (United States) Journal Volume: 21:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
070100* -- Physical Isotope Separation
38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
400700 -- Radiochemistry & Nuclear Chemistry
ALLOYS
CLEANING
CONTAINMENT
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
DEGASSING
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ELEMENTS
EUROPE
HEATING
HIGH ALLOY STEELS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
ISOTOPE SEPARATION PLANTS
ISOTOPES
MELTING
MERCURY
METALS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PUMPS
RELEASE LIMITS
STAINLESS STEELS
STEELS
TEMPERATURE RANGE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
TRITIUM EXTRACTION PLANTS
UNITED KINGDOM