Low Level Tritium Waste Management and Associated Controls at Bruyeres Le Chatel Research Center

The evaluation of the daily degassing rate of drums containing low level tritiated wastes is essential to abide by the requirements of the temporary storage sites or the storage sites. We present the methodology and the different techniques of increasing sensitivities used for the measurement of this rate by the Health Physics Department at Bruyères-le-Châtel Research Center. Concerning 0.2 m³ drums, the range of the degassing rate to be measured extends from 0.1 MBq a day to 1.85 GBq a day; thus three different equipments had been installed. All these equipments had been operated for several years and had enabled to work out the destination of 443 drums as well as the follow-up of the temporary storage in the Center before dispatching.