Distribution of Tritium in A Pressurized Water Power Reactor Plant

A versatile computer program is used to investigate the effects of variation in several essential reactor plant operation parameters, such as coolant leakage rates, reactor power history, and the amount and date of organized release, on the distribution of tritium in the primary system process waters of a WWER-type pressurized water power reactor plant. All the primary process waters ultimately reach a tritium saturation activity of ∼1.5 µCi/cm³ if no organized release is employed. An annual organized release of about one primary circuit water volume is needed to keep the maximum process water tritium activities encountered during an operation year below 0.5 µCi/cm³. The date of the annual release period usually has a rather slight effect on process water maximum activities. Hence, the date for release may be chosen so that, for example, the accompanying release of fission and corrosion product activities is minimized.