Tritium Extraction from Water

Tritiated wate`r production is ubiquitous in facilities that handle tritium gas. Sources range from decontamination efforts, to the deliberate conversion of elemental tritium to tritiated water in processes that strive to reduce emissions to the environment, to gaseous effluents to the environment. At low concentrations, ranging from a few μCi/L to mCi/L, high throughputs are required to process the high-volume, low-activity water. Combined electrolysis and catalytic exchange (CECE) shows promise by offering high throughput, reliability, economic viability, and facile coupling to isotopic separation systems if necessary. This paper will discuss the features of two production-scale CECE facilities: a 7 m³/h throughput system that uses an alkaline electrolysis cell and a 21 m³/h throughput system that uses a proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell. The former is in service and has been modified to improve reliability; the latter is in the initial stages of commissioning.