Review of the adsorption of radioactive krypton and xenon on activated charcoal

This report summarizes the results of a critical review of the published literature on the adsorption of radioactive krypton and xenon on activated charcoal. This review, which was supported by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, showed that (a) individual charcoals have a wide range of adsoprtion coefficients and therefore the performance of a given bed is heavily dependent on the quality of the charcoal it contains; (b) because of the detrimental effects of mass transfer on noble gas adsorption, consideration should be given to including this factor in developing technical specifications for adsorption beds; and (c) additional research is needed on the determination of the inter-relationship of moisture and temperature and their effects on adsorption bed performance