Tritium fuel cycle technology at the Tritium Systems Test Assembly

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:7012244

Anderson, J L; Bartlit, J R

The Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) at Los Alamos is charged with developing the tritium technology required to fuel a fusion reactor. A second major task is the development and evaluation of personnel and environmental protection systems associated with the tritium handling facilities at a fusion reactor. Tritium experiments were initiated in June 1984 when 10 g of tritium was introduced into the cryogenic distillation isotope separation system. In September 1986 the tritium inventory was increased to 50 g, the fuel cleanup system was used to remove impurities from the gas and extremely pure (>99.9%) tritium was prepared in the isotope separation system. The success of the TSTA operation is demonstrated by the fact that from June 1984 through September 1986 more than 5 x 10/sup 8/ Ci of tritium have been processed at TSTA. During this period less than 15 Ci of tritium have been released to the environment. Personnel exposures during this time have totaled less than 100 person-mRem. Experiments performed during this period include the tests on the isotope separation and fuel cleanup system; tests to study the contamination and decontamination of surfaces exposed to elemental tritium and tritium oxide; evaluation of a commercial getter for glovebox atmosphere detritiation tritium testing on a palladium alloy membrane diffuser; and evaluation of a ceramic electrolysis cell for decomposing tritiated water. The latter two experiments are being done in cooperation with the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 7012244
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-86-3556; CONF-8610214-1; ON: DE87001964
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700206* -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Environmental Aspects
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ELEMENTS
GETTERING
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INVENTORIES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
METALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OPERATION
PALLADIUM
PERFORMANCE
PLATINUM METALS
RADIOISOTOPES
TEST FACILITIES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
TRITIUM
TRITIUM SYSTEMS TEST ASSEMBLY
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES