Experiences with decontaminating tritium-handling apparatus

Conference · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5288873

Maienschein, J L; Garcia, F; Garza, R G; Kanna, R L; Mayhugh, S R; Taylor, D T

Tritium-handling apparatus has been decontaminated as part of the shutdown of the LLNL Tritium Facility. Two stainless-steel gloveboxes that had been used to process lithium deuteride-tritide (LiDT) salt were decontaminated using the Portable Cleanup System so that they could be flushed with room air through the facility ventilation system. Further surface decontamination was performed by scrubbing the interior with paper towels and ethyl alcohol or Swish{trademark}. The surface contamination, as shown by swipe surveys, was reduced from 4{times}10{sup 4}--10{sup 6} disintegrations per minute (dpm)/cm{sup 2} to 2{times}10{sup 2}--4{times}10{sup 4} dpm/cm{sup 2}. Details on the decontamination operation are provided. A series of metal (palladium and vanadium) hydride storage beds have been drained of tritium and flushed with deuterium in order to remove as much tritium as possible. The bed draining and flushing procedure is described, and a calculational method is presented which allows estimation of the tritium remaining in a bed after it has been drained and flushed. Data on specific bed draining and flushing are given.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5288873
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-106504; CONF-910920-30; ON: DE92013005
• Resource Relation: Conference: 4. topical meeting on tritium technology in fission, fusion, and isotopic applications, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 29 Sep - 4 Oct 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
GLOVEBOXES
DECONTAMINATION
TRITIUM
STORAGE
LITHIUM DEUTERIDES
PALLADIUM HYDRIDES
TRITIDES
VANADIUM HYDRIDES
VENTILATION SYSTEMS
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CLEANING
DEUTERIDES
DEUTERIUM COMPOUNDS
EQUIPMENT
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
LIGHT NUCLEI
LITHIUM COMPOUNDS
LITHIUM HYDRIDES
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
PALLADIUM COMPOUNDS
RADIOISOTOPES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
VANADIUM COMPOUNDS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
052001* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Processing
054000 - Nuclear Fuels- Health & Safety