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DOE-EM issues draft RFP for Hanford lab work, awards WIPP monitoring grant
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management issued a draft request for proposals on June 25 for the Hanford Site’s 222-S Laboratory contract. The 222-S Laboratory is the primary on-site laboratory for analysis of highly radioactive samples in support of all projects at the DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
S.K. Sood, C. Fong, K.M. Kalyanam, O.K. Kveton, A. Busigin, D.M. Ruthven
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 299-304
Tritium Processing | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29761
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA), which is a well established industrial process for separating and purifying industrial gases, is proposed for recovery of hydrogen isotopes from the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) solid breeder He purge stream. The PSA process has an inherent advantage over a recently proposed Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA) design because it allows much faster cycling (10 vs. 480 min.) and therefore has significantly (48 times) lower tritium inventory. The maximum tritium inventory for a 10 minute PSA cycle is less than 0.5 g of tritium, thus meeting an important safety goal of ITER. The PSA process is based on using molecular sieve 5A at 77 K, with pressure cycling from 1 – 2 MPa during the adsorption cycle, to a rough vacuum during regeneration. Experiments have been carried out to confirm the H2/He adsorption isotherms on molecular sieve 5A, and to develop new data points at low H2 partial pressures and a temperature of 77 K. A dynamic simulation model has been developed to facilitate system design and optimization. Simulation results indicate that a single-pass hydrogen isotope recovery of 50–80% is achievable, and that hydrogen purity of more than 99% is possible to obtain from the blanket purge stream containing only 0.1% total hydrogen in helium. Further experiments are underway to verify the dynamic simulation results and to investigate alternative adsorbent materials.