Recent activities on water detritiation technology in JAEA

Highlights: • Water detritiation technology has been developed for the Japanese fusion DEMO plant. • Durability of an ion exchange membrane was checked with concentrated tritiated water. • Hydrophobic catalyst of SiO₂ substrate has been developed for water detritiation. - Abstract: Japan Atomic Energy Agency has developed the water detritiation technology for CECE process considering the escalation in quantity and tritium concentration of tritiated water to be processed toward realization of the Japanese fusion DEMO plant. A commercial ion exchange perfluoro-membrane for concentrated tritiated water electrolyzer is durable against irradiation up to 1500 kGy in view of mechanical strength and ion exchange capacity. Concerning hydrophobic catalyst for LPCE column, a new method of manufacturing catalysts involving hydrophobic processing with an inorganic substance base has been developed. The catalyst created with this method has achieved the highest exchange efficiency, equivalent to 1.3 times the previously most powerful efficiency.