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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
A.G. Heics, W.T. Shmayda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 1509-1514
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-A30626
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An upgraded version of a metal hydride based clean-up systema for tritium gloveboxes has been recently designed. An earlier version of a prototypical, recirculating system has been under evaluation in tritium service at OHT for nearly 2 years. A metal getter alloy, Zr2Fe, is used to remove tritium and trace impurities from inert and nitrogen glovebox cover gas. The second generation SEC system features several notable improvements over its predecessor in areas of gas conductance, process instrumentation for tritium and moisture detection, and operator interface. A second bed has been added to enhance the removal of tritium and impurities. The system is controlled by computer programmed to automatically maintain the glovebox pressure, temperature and the impurity level of the glovebox cover gas, and to respond effectively to upset conditions by corrective action and to alarm the off-normal condition. The lifetime of the metal alloy getter is affected by the presence of impurities, notably moisture, which dictates the need to ensure system leak tightness. For example, the tritium concentration at the bed outlet will rise by approximately one order of magnitude as a result of introducing a continuous moisture load of 5 ppmv for 6 months while maintaining a flow rate of 2 L/s. The second generation system will be commissioned with tritium during 1995. a Metal hydride based clean-up systems utilize a metal getter. A metal hydride is a binary metallic compound or mixture produced when hydrogen is brought into contact with a metal.