RE: Tritium in Battery Acid

[Glen.Vickers@ucm.com]

The value of 5E-5 uCi/cc of H-3 in a battery sounds unusually high. I could
be wrong, but I can't fathom that the H-3 levels in the acid of a reasonably
sealed battery would be from the gaseous H-3 levels in your plant.  We are a
Westinghouse 1175 MWe PWR and the H-3 in our condensate system is only ~1E-5
uCi/cc or less.  This value is quite low, but there definitely is a credible
pathway from the reactor coolant to the secondary side steam and condensate
system. Our plant design has resin beds to remove gamma emitters from the
secondary side systems, but there is no mechanism to remove H-3.

Could it be that personnel were using water with low levels of H-3 to
replenish the acid?

As a general rule we don't use any of our secondary side water for flushing
of items which must later be unconditionally release to environmental LLDs.
We would only use demin water from a controlled source as it enters the
plant before it is tied to any other plant systems which might contain H-3.

Does this sound plausible?  Any other experiences from other plants?

Sincerely,
Glen Vickers
Braidwood Nuclear Power Station
glen.vickers 


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	McAvoy, Steve [SMTP:Steve.McAvoy@vynpc.com]
	Sent:	Thursday, February 11, 1999 10:20 AM
	To:	Multiple recipients of list
	Subject:	Tritium in Battery Acid

	Our site recently replaced the main station batteries. Prior to
release from
	the reactor building we sampled the battery acid for contamination
at
	environmental LLD's. The only activity was H-3 (yes, we confirmed
that it
	wasn't just an interference).

	1. Does anyone else check station wet cell battery acid for tritium
prior to
	release?

	2. Have you found any innovative ways to dispose or release battery
acid
	that has only tritium contamination (5E-5 uCi/cc levels) aside from
	neutralization and processing as radwaste?

	Thanx.

	Steve McAvoy
	VY Chemistry Supervisor
	
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