Development of tritium production technology in nuclear fusion research program of JAERI

492

Tritiurn Trcl1r7o/ogyin Fission,

Fu.sior7u17d Isotopic

Appkutiom

Control System For Sandia Laboratories Vacuum Effluent Recovery System*, W. R. WALL, R. D. RISTAU and P. D. GILDEA, Sandia Laboratories, Livermore, California -- The Vacuum Effluent Recovery System, (VERS) is used to remove tritium from the exhaust oases of the Tritium Research Laboratory vacuum systems before venting to the stack. The system consists of a laboratory vacuum manifold-and two holding tanks to collect the contaminated waste gases, a decontamination section to oxidize the tritium and collect the tritiated water, and a control and diagnostics section to provide both automatic and manual operation and to assess operational status. The VERS is normally operated in a separation batch processing mode. To minimize operating time, the effluent is divided into two levels of tritium concentration which are collected in separate holding tanks. Effluent is collected until the holding tank pressure reaches 86 kPa. The decision to stack the holding tank contents must be initiated manually while processing the contents through the decontamination section is automatic. To operate the VERS, a microprocessor controller is used to collect current system data and then to move valves, operate pumps, display system operation, and warn of system malfunction. The controller is based upon a Prolog two-board system incorporating an Intel 4040 microprocessor with 4K bytes of EPROM memory. Prolog input expanders, I/O boards, and power drivers are used with in-house designed valve controllers, signal transceivers, display drivers and timers. The VERS was placed in full time service on September 1, 1977. Since that time it has operated continuously for approximately 18,000 hours. Although there have been individual component failures resulting in temporary subsystem failures, the system has never been off-line due to these failures. *This work was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy.

Developmentram of JAERI,

T. ABE,

K. TANAKA,

Japan

Japan

The development

- -

K. YAf.lAGUCHI, H. KUDO, Atomic

Energy

of tritium

the aim of the extraction from neutron-irradiated

Research

i"l.TANASE, Institute,

production

of lo3 Ci of tritium lithium

to 95%, by the use of Tritium

E. SHIKATA,

H. U~IEI, K. TACHIKAWA

Tokai-mura, technology

in 1983.

aluminum

alloys

t6LiA1),

Extraction

System

(TREX),

Ibaraki-ken

is being

Gaseous

319-11,

continued

is extracted 6. 1% of Li enriched

containing a small

scale

test plant,

constructed

in the JAERI. TREX is a vacuum system, made of stainless steel, -4 rate of less than 10 atm cm3s-l and consists of a vacuum furnace in which irradiated trap

target

filled

with

are connected.

is heated uranium

A quadrupole

installed

as measuring

stainless

steel,

Tritium

Removal

System

adsorbed with

by molecular

an approximate

experimental

results

neutron-irradiated

mass

spectrometer

with

The

furnished

by converting

sieves

factor

through

6LiAl alloys

with

volumes

uranium to which

beds,

set in an inner

of 5 cm thick.

in the laboratory. gaseous

with

leak

the

a tritium

electric

and a gas chromatograph was

tritiated

and is operated

decontamination obtained

system

lead blocks

(TRS) was

box,

a purifier

and constant

equipments.

surrounded

in air of the inner

to 800°C,

powder,

with

tritium

getter

manometers

were

also

box, made

of

For the safe operation, TRS can remove

tritium

is 3 -1 at the flow rate between 1 and 7 m h , 4. of 10 in a one-through mode. The

the test operation

are reported.

species

into HTO which

of the systems

by using