5-9 September 2016
Prague Congress Centre
Europe/Prague timezone

O3B.1 The JET Materials Detritiation Facility for reducing radioactive waste liabilities

6 Sep 2016, 16:40
20m
Meeting Hall I 1st floor (Prague Congress Centre)

Meeting Hall I 1st floor

Prague Congress Centre

5. května 65, Prague, Czech Republic
Board: 1
Oral A. Experimental Fusion Devices and Supporting Facilities O3B

Speaker

Stephen Reynolds (Power and Active Operations)

Description

Radioactive waste arisings from JET operations are projected to contain approximately 25t of non-incinerable Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) with tritium levels > 12 kBq/g. This originates primarily from plasma facing components, specifically the divertor (MKIIa) used during the JET Deuterium Tritium Experiment in 1997 (DTE1). As current UK regulations do not allow off-site disposal of ILW and restricts the time period waste may be stored, the only options available to the UKAEA for the MKIIa divertor is either off-site storage pending construction of the UK’s deep geological disposal facility (GDF), or, following a detritiation process on/off-site, to dispose as Low Level Waste (LLW - < 12 kBq/g). Following a sampling and analysis campaign on a number of tiles and carriers a process using a thermal bake at 1273K in air for 6 hours was tested indicating a detritiation efficiency between 94.08% and 99.97% for the carbon tiles, and between 99.990% and 99.998% for the inconel tile carriers. A cost analysis was completed for performing detritiation off-site compared to constructing and running an in-house detritiation facility. This indicated costs of £284/kg for disposal to the GDF and £304/kg and £179/kg for off and on-site detritiation respectively. A detritiation facility is planned to be constructed at JET and is due for completion in 2017 with an estimated throughput of at least 14,000 kg per year with the released tritium being collected and recycled via the JET Water detritiation system (WDS). The effective waste treatment will reduce the radioactive waste liability, lower costs, reduce the environmental impact and demonstrate best available technique (BAT). Detritiation of fusion waste on an industrial scale is applicable to ITER to reduce storage complexity and cost and is demonstrative of the process required by DEMO for a closed fuel cycle in a commercial fusion power station.

Co-authors

Dave Coombs (Power and Active Operations, UK Atomic Energy Authority, Abingdon, United Kingdom) Mark Newman (Power and Active Operations, UK Atomic Energy Authority, Abingdon, United Kingdom) Robert Vale (Power and Active Operations, UK Atomic Energy Authority, Abingdon, United Kingdom) Stephen Reynolds (Power and Active Operations, UK Atomic Energy Authority, Abingdon, United Kingdom)

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