Tritium permeation and recovery for the Flibe/He blanket design
This study assumes tritium to be a gas dissolved in molten salt, with TF formation suppressed. Tritium permeates readily through the hot steel tubes of the reactor and steam generator and will leak into the steam system at the rate of about one gram per day in the absence of special permeation barriers, assuming that 1% of the helium coolant flow rate is processed for tritium recovery at 90% efficiency per pass. Tritiated water in the steam system is a personnel hazard at concentration levels well below one part per million and this level would soon be reached without costly isotopic processing. Alternatively, including a combination of permeation barriers on reactor and steam generator tubes and molten salt processing is estimated to reduce the leak rate into the steam system by over two orders of magnitude. For the option with the lowest estimated leak rate, 55 Ci/d, it may be possible to purge the steam system continuously to prevent tritiated water buildup. At best, isotopic separation of dilute tritiated water may not be necessary and for higher leak-rate options the isotopic processing rate can be reduced. The proposed permeation barrier for the reactor tubes is a 10 ..mu..m layer of tungsten which, in principle, will reduce tritium blanket permeation by a factor of about 300 below the bare-steel rate.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 5841594
- Report Number(s):
- UCID-20229; ON: DE86010863
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Helium cooled Flibe blanket
Helium-cooled, flibe breeder, beryllium multiplier blanket
Related Subjects
700201* -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Blanket Engineering
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BREEDING BLANKETS
DESIGN
ELEMENTS
FLIBE
FLUIDS
GASES
HELIUM
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MOLTEN SALTS
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
PERMEABILITY
RADIOISOTOPES
RARE GASES
REACTOR COMPONENTS
RECOVERY
SALTS
TRITIUM
TRITIUM RECOVERY
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES