A framed, artist’s depiction, of the Tritium Extraction Plant sited at CRNL. The drawing measures 57 cm by 37 cm and is in a 62 cm by 54 cm frame.
A framed, artist’s depiction, of the Tritium Extraction Plant sited at CRNL. The drawing measures 57 cm by 37 cm and is in a 62 cm by 54 cm frame.
The following is an abstract from a paper by WJ Holtslander, TE Harrison and DA Spagnolo in Fusion Engineering and Design Vol 12, Issue 3, June 1990.
ABSTRACT: The Chalk River Tritium Extraction Plant for removal of tritium from heavy water is described. Tritium is present in the heavy water from research reactors in the form of DTO at a concentration in the range of 1-35 Ci/kg. It is removed by the combination of catalytic exchange to transfer the tritium from DTO to DT, followed by a cryogenic distillation to separate and concentrate the tritium to T2. The tritium product is reacted with titanium and packaged for transportation and storage as titanium tritide. The plant processes heavy water at the rate of 25 kg/h and removes 80% of the tritium and 90% of the protium per pass. Catalytic exchange is carried out in the liquid phase using a proprietary wetproofed catalyst. The plant serves two roles in the Canadian fusion program: (1) it produces pure tritium for use in fusion research and development, and (2) it demonstrates on an industrial scale many of the tritium technologies that are common to the tritium systems in fusion reactors.
