Design of an impurities detritiation system for ITER using a palladium membrane reactor

A relatively simple, 1-stage Impurities Detritiation System has been designed for ITER. The system also simplifies the Tritium Plant design by incorporating the Process Waste Detritiation System into the IDS while achieving the design requirements of both systems. The IDS consists of a palladium membrane reactor followed by an oxidation-reactor/molecular sieve bed. 98% of the hydrogen isotopes are recovered in the PMR and sent to the isotope separation or storage systems. The remaining 2% of hydrogen isotopes are temporarily stored on molecular sieve. The molecular sieve beds are periodically regenerated back through the PMR to recover the hydrogen isotopes. The IDS has a robust design that allows for individual PMR, pump, or molecular sieve failure while still achieving the design requirements. PMR technology has been demonstrated with 204 hours. of tritium operation and 215 days of non-tritium operation at high performance and reliability. The system is estimated to have an installed cost of $1.4 M (without glove box). (authors)