Treatment of tritium from liquid and solid wastes for the purpose of recycling (input to an enrichment plant)

The present report is concerned with the planning, design and cold, i.e. inactive, operation of a plant for the treatment of tritiated wastes. The tritium is intended to be recovered together with the other hydrogen isotopes preferably from highly tritiated liquid and solid wastes; this is to be done in a way that permits the feeding of the tritium into an isotope separation plant. Such a method has two advantages: firstly, tritium, which is increasingly becoming more popular (e.g. for fusion research), is recycled, so that its reproduction, which would otherwise be necessary, can be reduced accordingly; secondly, the quantity of tritium to be stored at high costs either temporarily or ultimately - after the Federal repository has been set into operation - is decreased accordingly. A suitable plant was conceived consisting of 1. an extraction section in which the hydrogen isotopes are completely removed by heating; 2. a purification section in which impurities such as O2, H2O, carbon oxides, hydrocarbons, i.a. are removed from the extracted gas. The purification should be effected with uranium, Zr-Al alloys or by means of permeation of the hydrogen isotopes through a Pd-Ag diaphragm; 3. ionization chambers for measuring the concentration of tritium in the plant; 4. a mass spectrometer for analysing the gaseous mixture; 5. a storage system for the hydrogen isotopes purified on the basis of uranium, with a storage capacity of up to 9,25x1014 Bq (25 kCi) with a very efficient backup safety. (orig./RB)