Separation Setup for the Light Water Detritiation Process in the Water-Hydrogen System Based on the Membrane Contact Devices

Abstract

Detritiation of light water wastes down to a level permissible to discharge into the environment while simultaneously concentrating tritium to decrease amount of waste being buried is a constant problem. The laboratory setup for the light water detritiation process is presented. The separation column consists of 10 horizontally arranged perfluorosulphonic acid Nafiontype membrane contact devises and platinum catalyst (RCTU-3SM). Each contact device has 42.3 cm² of the membrane and 10 cm³ of the catalyst. The column is washed by tritium free light water (L_H2O) and the tritiumcontaining flow (F_HTO) feeds the electrolyser at γ = G_H2/L_H2O = 2. A separation factor of 66 is noted with the device at 336 K and 0.145 MPa.