Process for tritium removal from light water
AssigneeGe Healthcare UK Limited
InventorsIan Richard Bonnett, Anthony Busigin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for light water detritiation which includes the steps of water distillation for tritium stripping and enriching, followed by chemical conversion of tritium enriched water to elemental hydrogen, and finally by one or more thermal diffusion columns for final tritium enrichment. The combination of process steps takes advantage of water distillation large throughput capability at low tritium concentration with the simplicity of thermal diffusion for small throughput final tritium enrichment. The water distillation front-end and the thermal diffusion back end processes are compatible with any intermediate chemical conversion process such as electrolysis or water gas shift reaction to convert tritiated water to elemental hydrogen.
Claims11
A process for recovering tritium from a mixture containing heavy and light hydrogen isotopes in a water feed material, which process comprises:
- i) distilling a sample of water containing said mixture of hydrogen isotopes under conditions to separate water containing lighter hydrogen from water containing heavier hydrogen from said mixture;
- ii) converting water enriched in heavier hydrogen from step i) under catalytic conditions and in the presence of carbon monoxide into a mixture of hydrogen isotopes and oxides of carbon;
- and
- iii) separating hydrogen isotopes from step ii) by thermal diffusion.
A combined water distillation and thermal diffusion process for converting tritiated water to elemental hydrogen and tritium, comprising:
- i) distilling a sample of water containing a mixture of hydrogen isotopes under conditions to separate water containing lighter hydrogen from water containing heavier hydrogen from said mixture;
- ii) converting tritiated water to elemental hydrogen and tritium by a process selected from the group consisting of electrolysis and water gas shift reactor;
- and iii) separating elemental hydrogen and tritium from step ii) by thermal diffusion.
A system for converting tritiated water containing a mixture of hydrogen isotopes into elemental hydrogen and tritium, comprising:
- a) a water distillation column for distilling a sample of water containing said mixture of hydrogen isotopes;
- b) a conversion apparatus for converting water enriched in heavy hydrogen under catalytic conditions and in the presence of carbon monoxide into a mixture of hydrogen isotopes and oxides of carbon;
- and
- c) a thermal diffusion column for separating hydrogen isotopes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.