Tritium Emissions Reduction Facility

The Tritium Emissions Reduction Facility (TERF) will be a system for the continuous processing of tritium containing gases collected from various operations at Mound. The basis of the system operation will be the oxidation of elemental hydrogen isotopes and organic molecules at elevated temperatures on precious metal catalyst beds, and the adsorption of the resulting oxide (water) on molecular sieve dryers. The TERF will be expected to handle from 400,000 to 1,000,000 curies of tritium per year in the process gas stream and release no more than 200 curies per year to the atmosphere. Consequently, the TERF will need to convert and capture tritium at low concentrations in gas efficiently and reliably.