Tritium Recovery from Tritiated Water by Electrolysis

In addition to the tritiated water produced by the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, large quantities result from the development of controlled fusion reactors for power generation (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). To obtain a new industrial method of reducing tritiated water, an electrolytic rather than a chemical process was developed. A prototype electrolyzer is described and the results obtained are given. In this process, the tritium recovery system is based on the principle of a gas diffusion Pd-Ag electrode incorporating a tritium charging cathode, which produces very pure hydrogen isotope gases. This is for converting ³H₂O to high-purity ³H₂ and its isotopes from tritiated water with >30 TBq/cm³ radioactivity (>50% ³H₂O). The prototype module has been tested in a hot laboratory. The overall operating time exceeded 1500 h, and 6 g of gaseous tritium were produced without difficulty.