Decontamination of tritiated water
AssigneeSavannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC
InventorXin Xiao
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Abstract
Methods and systems directed to the separation of tritium from an aqueous stream are described. The separation method is a multi-stage method that includes a first stage during which tritium of a tritium-contaminated aqueous stream is adsorbed onto a separation phase, a second stage during which the adsorbed tritium is exchanged with hydrogen in a gaseous stream to provide a gaseous stream with a high tritium concentration, and a third stage during which the tritium of the gaseous stream is separated from the gaseous stream as a gaseous tritium product.
Claims15
A process for removal and recovery of tritium from tritium-contaminated water, the process comprising:
- contacting a solid separation phase with an aqueous stream, the solid separation phase including hydroxyl groups, the aqueous stream comprising tritium, the solid separation phase having an isotopic separation factor of about 1.06 or greater, upon the contact the tritium being adsorbed onto a surface of the solid separation phase or exchanged with protium of the hydroxyl groups at the surface of the solid separation phase to form a purified aqueous stream;
- subsequently, contacting the solid separation phase with a gaseous stream, the gaseous stream comprising protium and/or deuterium in the form of a gas selected from the group consisting of hydrogen gas, deuterium gas, hydrogen deuteride, and mixtures thereof, the tritium that is at the surface of the solid separation phase being exchanged with the protium and/or the deuterium of the gaseous stream to form a tritium-enriched gaseous stream;
- and
- separating the tritium from the tritium-enriched gaseous stream.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.