Tritium removal from noble gas streams

Abstract

A process loop to remove tritium from a flowing helium stream in a single pass has been constructed and commissioned. Inventories injected into the loop range from 1 GBq–28 TBq. Concentrations within the stream entering the loop range from 40 MBq/m3 to 15 TBq/m3 . The tritium is removed from the stream by gettering on uranium beds. Residual concentrations leaving these beds are removed with zirconium–iron getter beds. Purification factors of 10 for the uranium beds and a minimum of 19 400 for the zirconium–iron bed have been measured. This paper describes the process loop and the performance of the getter beds during one 28-TBq injection.