Experimental study of the tritium distribution in the effluents resulting from the sodium hydrolysis

Within the framework of the dismantling of fast breeder reactors in France several processes are under investigation regarding sodium disposal. One of them, called ELA (radioactive sodium waste treatment process), is based on the implementation of the sodium-water reaction, in a controlled and progressive way, to remove residual sodium. This sodium contains impurities such as sodium hydride, sodium oxide and tritiated sodium hydride. The hydrolysis of these various chemical species leads to the production of a liquid effluent, mainly composed of an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide, and a gaseous effluent, mainly composed of nitrogen (inert gas), hydrogen and steam. The tritium is distributed between these effluents, and, within the gaseous effluent, according to its forms HT and HTO (tritiated water). HTO being 10,000 times more radio-toxic than HT, a precise knowledge of the mechanisms governing the phase distribution of tritium is necessary. This paper presents the first experimental results from a parametric study on the tritium distribution between the various effluents generated during hydrolysis operations. A series of experiments have been performed in order to study the influence of water flow rate, argon flow rate, initial mass and specific activity of the hydrolyzed sodium sample. An important influence ofmore » the total tritium concentration in the hydrolyzed sample has been highlighted. As for the phenomena suspected to be responsible for the phase change of tritiated water, in the studied range of parameters, vaporization induced by the heat of reactions seems to be dominant over the evaporation induced by the inert gas flow rate.« less