Disposal Pathway for Tritiated Reactive Metals and Tritiated Hydrogen Gas

Kinectrics and its predecessor company Ontario Hydro Research Division (a division of Ontario Hydro) had a fully operational tritium laboratory on site since the early 1980's. During those years numerous projects and experiments were undertaken using hydrogen and tritium for the most part. Metals with an affinity for hydrogen are commonly employed as scavengers of hydrogenic gases from process streams or as hydrogen storage mediums. The two most common of these metals used were depleted uranium and a zirconium-iron alloy (SAES St198). The break-up of Ontario Hydro through deregulation activities resulted in the building of a new, smaller, tritium laboratory and the decommissioning of the original tritium laboratory. Decommissioning activities resulted in the need to safely dispose of these reactive metals. Disposal of these metals is not straight forward. For safe, long term, disposal it has been decided to oxidize the metals in a controlled fashion. The oxidized beds, containing the metals, will be sent to a radioactive waste site for long term storage. Options for disposal of tritiated hydrogen gas are presented and discussed. This paper provides a disposal pathway for tritiated reactive metals and hydrogen thereby closing the loop in tritium handling.