Comparative Analysis of Tritium Recovery Methods from Pb-17Li Water-Cooled Blanket

The present paper compares, in terms of safety and reliability, two different designs for tritium recovery from DEMO Pb-17Li water-cooled blanket. The first one, based on tritium recovery from Pb-17Li outside the blanket units, tritium removal from the purge gas of the extracting system and tritium permeation barriers towards the coolant, is overviewed and analyzed especially with regard compactness and reliability. In the alternative option, tritium generated in the blanket is free to permeate into the cooling water and is recovered by the water detritiation system, avoiding, therefore, the external tritium extractor from Pb-17Li and permeation barriers, the technological feasibility of which is not yet proven on industrial plant scale. A safety analysis of this alternative design has been carried out both for normal operation and accident conditions. The results, here presented and discussed, have shown that this alternative option seems to be feasible and worthy of successive research and investigations.