Enhanced configuration of a water detritiation system; impact on ITER Isotope Separation System based cryogenic distillation

- An enhanced configuration of ITER WDS has been developed.
- The proposed configuration allows minimization of hazards due to the reduction of tritium inventory.
- The load on the tritium recovery system (ITER ISS) is minimized with benefits on mitigation of the explosion hazards.

Tritiated water is generated in the ITER systems by various sources and may contain deuterium and tritium at various concentrations. The reference process for the ITER Water Detritiation System is based on Combined Electrolysis Catalytic Exchange (CECE) configuration. During long time operation of the CECE process, the accumulation of deuterium in the electrolysis unit and consequently along the Liquid Phase Catalytic Exchange (LPCE) column is unavoidable with consequences on the overall detritiation factor of the system. Beside the deuterium issue in the process, the large amount of the tritiated water with tritium activity up to 500 Ci/kg in the electrolysis cells is a concern from the safety aspect of the plant.The enhanced configuration of a system for processing tritiated water allows mitigation of the effects due to deuterium accumulation and also reduction of tritium inventory within the electrolysis system. In addition the benefits concerning to the interface between the water detritiation system and tritium recovery based cryogenic distillation are also presented.