Tritium removal system for Pickering

Ontario Hydro is installing a tritium removal system at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The system will extract tritium from the moderator and heat transport systems of all eight reactor units and will store it in an immobilizeed form. Tritium is removed from heavy water in two steps. First the tritium is transferred from heavy water by vapour phase catalytic exchange. In the second step a mixture of D2 and DT is cooled to -250 deg C and tritium is separated from deuterium by cryogenic distillation. The tritium gas produced in the final column of the cryogenic unit is 99 percent pure and is immobilized on titanium metal as a tritide. Safety and licensing issues are discussed