Speaker
Michal Kresina
(DEN)
Description
Operation of fusion facilities using deuterium and tritium to fuel the fusion reaction will lead to generation of radioactive waste during operating and decommissioning phases. Most of these wastes are expected to be contaminated with tritium and will require a specific management strategy taking into account the physical and chemical properties of tritium. The reference management strategy for tritiated waste that cannot be accepted directly for its final disposal is a 50-year interim storage enabling tritium to decay (the 50-year interim storage corresponds to 4 tritium radioactive periods i.e. a tritium reduction factor of 16). The most contaminated categories may need to be processed using detritiation techniques in order to reduce the tritium content and tritium outgassing as an alternative or as a complement to an interim storage phase.
The detritiation of metallic waste by thermal treatment and melting has been investigated and the main features are described in this paper. Melting offers a higher detritiation factor than thermal treatment. Comparison of different waste management strategies against several independent parameters related to the environment, safety, and technical feasibility has been also performed. For purely tritiated metallic waste made from stainless steel, in any case, performing a detritiation appears to be very attractive, allowing a significant decrease of interim storage duration.
Co-authors
Christelle Decanis
(DEN, CEA, Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France)
Daniel Canas
(DEN, CEA , Gif-sur-Yvette, France)
Karine Liger
(DEN, CEA, Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France)
Michal Kresina
(DEN, CEA, Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France)
