[ RadSafe ] Tritium production in a nuke plant

[Steve Schulin]

Hi Emil -

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has issued several reports as part of its Tritium Studies Project, launched in 2007. The project web pages start at http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/readingroom/tritium/tritium_studies.cfm

A CNSC press release earlier this year reported that "The highest average annual tritium level measured in the drinking water of Canadian communities neighbouring nuclear facilities is about 18 Bq/l. This is well below drinking water limits recommended by Health Canada of 7,000 Bq/l."

2006 Tritium releases from the CANDU sites Darlington, Pickering, Bruce, Gentilly-2 and Point Lepreau are shown in Table 2 at http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/pubs_catalogue/uploads/CNSC_Release_and_Dose_eng_rev2.pdf

Best wishes,

NUCLEAR.COM

Steve Schuin
http://www.nuclear.com

On Apr 18, 2013, at 3:54 AM, Emil wrote:

> Steve,
>  
> Are there any refs for Candu?
> They are definitely having biggest problem with tritium.
> Candu's are of course not NRC jurisdiction.
>  
> Emil.
> 
> --- On Wed, 4/17/13, Steve Schulin <steve.schulin at nuclear.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: Steve Schulin <steve.schulin at nuclear.com>
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Tritium production in a nuke plant
> To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, April 17, 2013, 9:16 PM
> 
> 
> Hi Rahim -
> 
> * For 1,000 MWe LWRs, Eicholz (1976, Table 46) shows Maximum Expected Tritium Releases to the Coolant as 627 Ci/yr for PWR and 50 Ci/yr for BWR. Both BWRs and PWRs produce tritium via ternary fission. A 1,000-MWe unit  using zircaloy clad fuel will release approximately 0.1% of the tritium from ternary fission to the coolant. That 0.1% works out to up to 40 Ci/yr. Both BWRs and PWRs also produce tritium via Deuterium reaction. That accounts for 10 Ci/yr. But PWRs have two unique tritium sources: neutron capture reactions in soluble boron and lithium. Those account for the higher PWR value. Most of the tritium in the coolant will appear in the plant's liquid effluent
> Source: Geoffrey G. Eicholz, ENVRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF NUCLEAR POWER, 1976, pp. 176-177, 326
> 
> * In 2003, the average PWR released about 700 curies of tritium in liquid effluents and the average BWR released about 30 curies of tritium in liquid effluents.
> Source: NRC.gov, "Frequently Asked Questions About Liquid Radioactive Releases" -- http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/tritium/faqs.html
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> NUCLEAR.COM
> 
> Steve Schulin
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> On Apr 17, 2013, at 3:44 PM, Rahim Ghanooni wrote:
> 
>> I am looking for a equation/method/documentation/publication to calculate
>> the Tritium production in a typical nuke plant.
>> 
>> Feel free to contact me directly.
>> 
>> Thnx
>> Rahim
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