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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Latest News
No impact from Savannah River radioactive wasps
The news is abuzz with recent news stories about four radioactive wasp nests found at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The site has been undergoing cleanup operations since the 1990s related to the production of plutonium and tritium for defense purposes during the Cold War. Cleanup activities are expected to continue into the 2060s.
Yasuo Suzuki, Shoji Kimura
Nuclear Technology | Volume 103 | Number 1 | July 1993 | Pages 93-100
Technical Paper | Enrichment and Reprocessing System | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34832
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A continuous membrane column process that uses a palladium alloy membrane for the separation of hydrogen isotopes is studied. Hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium permeation rates obtained in previous studies are used in numerical calculations in which the nature of the membrane column is investigated through variations in the operation variables, such as the pressures and their ratio, the reflux ratio, and the stripping column velocity. Finally, a cascade design in which membrane columns are used as unit cells is developed, following a design study of a nuclear fusion reactor fuel cycle system, and the concentrations and flow rates are calculated. The results show that hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium can be separated and concentrated as well by this method as by the liquid hydrogen distillation process. The inventory of the membrane column process is also calculated, and it is ∼2.3 times the fuel processed in a day.