A NEW ARRANGEMENT FOR THE AIR CLEANUP SYSTEM TO RECOVER TRITIUM

At present, the standard arrangement of the air cleanup system respons ible for emergency tritium recovery from room air is a catalytic oxida tion bed with a heater followed by an adsorption bed with a cooler One disadvantage of this arrangement is that trouble with the heater or t he cooler could result in a loss of capacity to recover tritium. Anoth er disadvantage of the catalyst-adsorption-bed arrangement is that tri tiated water must be recovered with a high decontamination factor afte r dilution with a large amount of water vapor in the working atmospher e. The performance of a new arrangement for the air cleanup system, wh ich consists of a precious metal catalyst bed preceded by an adsorptio n bed without heating equipment, is discussed. According to calculatio ns, most of the tritium released to the room air is recovered in the c atalyst bed through oxidation, adsorption, and isotope exchange reacti on when the new arrangement is applied. The adsorption bed placed befo re the catalyst bed dehumidifies the process gas to such a degree that the oxidation reaction of tritium in the catalyst bed is not hindered by water vapor.