Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Design, setup and routine operation of a water treatment system for the monitoring of low activities of tritium in water

  • C.D.R. Azevedo (I3N - Departamento de Fisica da Universidade de Aveiro) ;
  • A. Baeza (Laboratorio de Radiactividad Ambiental, Universidad de Extremadura) ;
  • E. Chauveau (Universite de Bordeaux and CNRS, CENBG) ;
  • J.A. Corbacho (Departamento de Fisica Aplicada, Centro Universitario de Merida, Universidad de Extremadura) ;
  • J. Diaz (Instituto de Física Corpuscular, Centro mixto CSIC-Universidad de Valencia) ;
  • J. Domange (Universite de Bordeaux and CNRS, CENBG) ;
  • C. Marquet (Universite de Bordeaux and CNRS, CENBG) ;
  • M. Martinez-Roig (Instituto de Física Corpuscular, Centro mixto CSIC-Universidad de Valencia) ;
  • F. Piquemal (Universite de Bordeaux and CNRS, CENBG) ;
  • C. Roldan (Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Valencia) ;
  • J. Vasco (Laboratorio de Radiactividad Ambiental, Universidad de Extremadura) ;
  • J.F.C.A. Veloso (I3N - Departamento de Fisica da Universidade de Aveiro) ;
  • N. Yahlali (Instituto de Física Corpuscular, Centro mixto CSIC-Universidad de Valencia)
  • Received : 2022.09.24
  • Accepted : 2023.03.28
  • Published : 2023.07.25
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Abstract

In the TRITIUM project, an on-site monitoring system is being developed to measure tritium (3H) levels in water near nuclear power plants. The quite low-energy betas emitted by 3H have a very short average path in water (5 ㎛ as shown by simulations for 18 keV electrons). This path would be further reduced by impurities present in the water, resulting in a significant reduction of the detection efficiency. Therefore, one of the essential requirements of the project is the elimination of these impurities through a filtration process and the removal of salts in solution. This paper describes a water treatment system developed for the project that meets the following requirements: the water produced should be of near-pure water quality according to ISO 3696 grade 3 standard (conductivity < 10 µS/cm); the system should operate autonomously and be remotely monitored.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the INTERREG-SUDOE EEC program through the project TRITIUM - SOE1/P4/E0214 entitled: "Diseno, construccion y puesta a punto de estaciones automaticas para el monitoraje en tiempo real de bajos niveles radiactivos de tritio en aguas".

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