UV/Ozone Treatment to Decontaminate Tritium Contaminated Surfaces

Tritium contamination on surfaces is often encountered during operation and maintenance of equipment at the Darlington Tritium Removal Facility and likely at other tritium handling facilities. The use of efficient decontamination techniques that produce little or no secondary wastes is desirable. At Ontario Hydro Technologies (OHT) we have been developing a process utilizing a combination of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and ozone gas to remove tritium surface contamination from materials often used in tritium service. This paper summarizes the performance of the technique. The results are encouraging because the technique is very effective, simple in terms of equipment requirements and concentrates tritium in an easily managed waste form.