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The top 10 states of nuclear
The past few years have seen a concerted effort from many U.S. states to encourage nuclear development. The momentum behind nuclear-friendly policies has grown considerably, with many states repealing moratoriums, courting nuclear developers and suppliers, and in some cases creating advisory groups and road maps to push deployment of new nuclear reactors.
Aurelien Chassery, Helene Lorcet, Joel Godlewski, Karine Liger, Christian Latge, Xavier Joulia
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 2 | March 2015 | Pages 300-303
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T15
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Within the framework of the dismantling of fast breeder reactors in France (PHENIX, SUPERPHENIX, RAPSODIE), several processes are under investigation regarding sodium disposal. One of them, called ELA (radioactive sodium waste treatment process), is based on the implementation of the sodium-water reaction, in a controlled and progressive way, to remove residual sodium mainly from the sodium purification systems called cold traps. This sodium contains impurities such as sodium hydride, sodium oxide and tritiated sodium hydride. The hydrolysis of these various chemical species leads to the production of a liquid effluent, mainly composed of an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide, and a gaseous effluent, mainly composed of nitrogen (inert gas), hydrogen and steam. The tritium is distributed between these effluents, and, within the gaseous effluent, according to its forms HT and HTO. HTO being 10,000 times more radiotoxic than HT, a precise knowledge of the mechanisms governing the phase distribution of tritium is necessary. Indeed, it will help to design the process needed to optimize the treatment of the off-gas before its release into the environment. This paper presents the first experimental results from a parametric study on the tritium distribution between the various effluents generated during hydrolysis operations. This parametric study has been performed in a laboratory scale hydrolysis process designed at the CEA Cadarache.