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Title: Iodine Loading of NO Aged Silver Exchanged Mordenite

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1160343· OSTI ID:1160343

In an off-gas treatment system for used nuclear fuel processing, a solid sorbent will typically be exposed to a gas stream for months at a time. This gas stream may be at elevated temperature and could contain water vapor, gaseous nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x}), nitric acid vapors, and a variety of other constituents. For this reason, it is important to evaluate the effects of long-term exposure, or aging, on proposed sorbents. Silver exchanged mordenite (AgZ) is being studied at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to determine its iodine sorption capacity after long term exposure to increasingly more complex chemical environments. Studies previously conducted at ORNL investigated the effects of aging reduced silver exchanged mordenite (Ag{sup 0}Z) in dry air, moist air, and NO2. This study investigated the effects of extended exposure to nitric oxide (NO) gas on the iodine capture performance of Ag{sup 0}Z. A deep bed of Ag{sup 0}Z was aged in a 1% nitric oxide (NO) air stream, and portions of the bed were removed at pre-determined intervals. After being removed from the NO stream, each sample was loaded with iodine in a thin bed configuration. These samples were analyzed by neutron activation analysis (NAA) to quantify the iodine content in the sample. Samples were removed at one week and one month. A 78% decrease in sample capacity was seen after one week of exposure, with no further decrease observed after 1 month of aging. The observed loss in capacity is larger in magnitude than previous studies exposing Ag{sup 0}Z to dry air, moist air, or NO2 gas. The aging study was terminated after one month and repeated; this successfully demonstrated the reproducibility of the results.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Fuel Cycle Technologies (NE-5)
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1160343
Report Number(s):
ORNL/LTR-2014/425; R&D Project: AF5805010; FCRD-SWF-2014-000277
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English