Originally licensed in 1993 the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) is a unique pilot scale isotope laboratory focused on tritium handling and processing to conduct a variety of scientific experiments ...and development tasks. In order to fulfil all requirements regarding the license, a framework of regulations is applied as a basis for the operation of TLK, as well as the setup of new experiments and the design of components. This paper will give an overview on the framework of operation in view of licensing issues, as well as administrative and technical regulations mandatory to legally and reliably operate an isotope laboratory of this scale.
At Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) calorimetry is used as the primary method for tritium accountability and for samples ranging from micrograms to tens of grams. An accuracy of 0.3% is achievable ...for samples containing more than 0.5 mg tritium and the precision of each calorimeter is better than 0.5%. The results of the TLK calorimeters vary within maximum 0.6% from each other.
At the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe stainless steel cross-piece ionization chambers have been used to measure the activity concentration of tritiated gases in experiments and processes for more than ...10 years. New chambers with an optimized design in terms of the effective chamber volume were produced. Furthermore, they were gold and copper plated to determine the influence of the coatings on the signal and on the memory effect. A new chamber of the old design was built for direct comparison of the signals. The chambers were characterized with different helium-tritium mixtures in 8 runs and the ionisation current as a function of the static gas pressure was measured. When comparing the three new chambers, the gold chamber always showed the highest current, followed by the copper chamber. After exposing the chambers to ~13,100 TBq/m
3
, the memory effect was investigated by using a similar gas mixture of the earlier runs with ~1,500 TBq/m
3
. The gold chamber showed the highest memory effect, the copper chamber the lowest. This paper describes the design and the testing procedure of the chambers. It presents the first experimental results on the chamber performance, on the memory effects as well as calibration curves.
From the known getter materials proposed for the storage, supply, and recovery of hydrogen isotopes the interalloy ZrCo was selected by the international thermonuclear experimental reactors (ITER) ...team because it has very similar properties to uranium and is more acceptable for Regulatory Agencies. The only known drawback of ZrCo is its potential of loosing the ability to reversibly absorb or desorb tritium during prolonged thermal cycling. Under these conditions, the getter hydride ZrCoH
x
(
x≤3), tends to disproportionate yielding the more stable hydride ZrH
2, which is associated with performance degradation in the gettering properties. In this paper, previous studies on the rate of hydrogen induced disproportionation/reproportionation of ZrCo were extended to a broader temperature range. In addition, comparative measurements were performed with protium and deuterium with the aim of determining possible isotope effect. On the basis of the structural modifications that samples undergo during hydrogenation a qualitative explanation is given for the disproportionation mechanism.
This paper describes the tritium confinement concept and the tritium retention systems at TLK. A description of the AMOR facility for the regeneration of the HTO loaded molecular sieve beds and the ...operational experience gained from the regeneration of molecular sieve beds (up to 20 times each) is also presented. Finally tritium releases over this period to the environment will also be given.
The Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) was commissioned with tritium in 1994 and since then has continuously improved its infrastructure and has expanded its experimental activities. With a fully ...closed tritium cycle and the license to handle 40 g of tritium TLK is an almost unique experimental facility. More than 10 glove box systems with a total volume of about 125 m{sup 3} are operated to house experiments and infrastructure facilities on an area of more than 1000 m{sup 2}. Today TLK has about 23 g of tritium on site. The paper describes the closed tritium loop of the TLK infrastructure and its links to different experiments. Some experience gained during operation of TLK is also presented.
The Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) has been designed to handle relevant amounts of tritium for the development of tritium technology for fusion reactors. This paper describes the tritii4m ...technology development and experience gained during the upgrade of facilities, interventions, replacement failed components and operation of the TLK since its commissioning with tritium in 1994.
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