WASTE CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMERIC COMPONENTS EXPOSED TO TRITIUM GAS
A recent independent review led to uncertainty about the technical basis for characterizing the residual amount of tritium in polymer components used in the Savannah River Site Tritium Facilities that are sent for waste disposal. A review of a paper published in the open literature firmly establishes the basis of the currently used characterization, 10 Ci/cc. Information provided in that paper about exposure experiments performed at the DOE Mound Laboratory allows the calculation of the currently used characterization. These experiments involved exposure of high density polyethylene (HD-PE) to initially 1 atm tritium gas. In addition, a review of recent research at the Savannah River Site not only further substantiates this characterization, but also establishes its use for ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, a trade name is Teflon{reg_sign}), and Vespel{reg_sign} polyimide. 10 Ci/cc tritium is a representative characterization for any type of polymer components exposed at ambient temperature and at approximately 1 atm. tritium gas.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 927597
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-STI-2008-00078; TRN: US0804548
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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