Stripper System Performance in the Replacement Tritium Facility

In the new Replacement Tritium Facility (RTF) at the Savannah River Site, gloveboxes and stripper systems are used to minimize tritium release to the environment. The RTF was built to handle kilogram levels of tritium. It was started up and has been in operation since January 1994. The glovebox-stripper system has performed well in confining tritium leaks from the process. The tritium level in the gloveboxes has been maintained at below 0.1 Ci/m³ under normal conditions. During a large leak of tritium gas from the process to a glovebox, the tritium concentration in the glovebox shot up to about 4000 Ci/m³. However, there was no significant release of tritium to the environment. The tritium reading in the glovebox decreased to a 10 Ci/m³ level after 6 days of stripping. The performance of the glovebox-stripper system during this tritium leak and the possible factors for the long and slow decay of the tritium concentration in the glovebox are discussed in this paper.