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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Work-study master’s program in nuclear offered in Italy
Energy company Ansaldo Energia recently hosted a ceremony at its headquarters in Genoa, Italy, marking the launch of the Master in Technologies for Nuclear Power Plants program, which it developed in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano. A call for graduates in engineering, physics, and chemistry issued in May attracted more than 300 applications, 26 of which were selected for the program.
Peter J. Allsop, C. Colin Barfoot
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 1445-1450
Tritium Waste Management and Discharge Control | Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology In Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30615
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritiated heavy water (DTO) accumulates in the process systems of a CANDU®a reactor due to neutron capture by the heavy-water moderator and coolant. After twelve years of service, the moderator in the Point Lepreau Generating Station has reached approximately 1.6 TBq/kg, and the total inventory exceeds 300 PBq. Point Lepreau uses nine desiccant dryers to control airborne heavy water and tritium. Ranging in size from 1 000 m3/h to 6 800 m3/h, the majority are single-bed, cocurrent-regenerated units filled with 13X or 4A molecular sieve. These dryers have operated almost continuously for twelve years without a significant breakdown. During the last thirteen years, their availability has exceeded 99% and they have routinely dried air to a dew-point temperature of −60°C or below. Tritium emissions from the dried areas in the reactor building remain a small fraction of the tritium released into the reactor building. The keys to the success of this detritiation system are the mechanical simplicity of the dryers, the versatility of the ventilation system, a comprehensive preventative-maintenance program, and an advanced control system unique to Point Lepreau. In this paper the layout of the Point Lepreau vapour-recovery system is described and operating performance discussed. This includes a comparison of the Point Lepreau dryers to earlier designs, a description of the advanced control system, and a discussion of the operating experience and philosophy. Performance data for the system under various operating conditions are presented, including a description of operating problems caused by volatile organics released during maintenance operations. Recommendations for how this experience might be applied to a fusion power reactor are made.