[ RadSafe ] BNL tritium, etc.

[Joseph Shonka]

I think Dan must have used fission product tritium and may not have
corrected for 40 years of decay.  CANDU reactors separate out 2.5 kg
per year from heavy water, and classified production of tritium by the
weapons states were kg/month during the cold war.  BNL's tritium came
from heavy water moderation and not release of fission products.

If you just consider fission product tritium by power reactors the 75
kg inventory for US power reactors at equilibrium may be right.
However, reactivity control using boron at those reactors may be a
more important source of tritium

Joe
>
>
> Hi - I was wondering about the natural tritium concentration, so I did a
> straightforward calculation of the mass of tritium required for 6 MCi /
> Year.  The answer that I got was a disappointing 623.6 grams / year.  Is
> that correct?
>
> I then looked at the US inventory of reactor-produced tritium in 1996 - 75
> kg.  So the US produced 225 kg since 1955-1996 and nature produced 41 years
> x 623.6 grams / year = 25.6 kg in the same time period.

-- 
Joseph J. Shonka, Ph.D.
Shonka Research Associates, Inc.
5199 Sandlewood Court
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