Measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water by azeotropic distillation

Pourimani, Reza; Zare, Mohammad Reza; Aghamohammadi, Mehrdad

doi:10.22034/rpe.2023.379666.1113

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

¹ Department of Physics‎, ‎Faculty of Science‎, ‎Arak University‎, ‎Arak‎, ‎Iran

² Department of Physics‎, ‎Faculty of Science‎, ‎University of Isfahan‎, ‎Isfahan‎, ‎Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/rpe.2023.379666.1113

Abstract

In this work, the concentration of tritium in D₂O of various degrees of purity was measured. Samples were taken from the Arak heavy water plant and tritium concentrations were determined using a liquid scintillation detector (LSC) based on tritium decay. In this work, instead of simple distillation, is used the azeotropic distillation method. Absorption and fluorescence spectra were recorded using a Shimadzu UV-2100 spectrometer and an LS50B fluorescence spectrometer. The tritium concentration in the samples varied from 1.75 ± 0.80 to 6.16 ± 1.01 Bq.L^-1 in D₂O enrichment from 0.35% to 77.50%. The correlation coefficient between tritium concentration and D₂O purity in heavy water was obtained as R² = 0.853. Deviation for 99.8% D₂O enriched in heavy water. This was observed from a straight line, leading to a drop in R². The results of this measurement showed that the tritium concentration did not exceed the value set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Highlights

Measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water by azeotropic distillation for the first time in Iran.
Comparison of the results with the NRC.
Examining the changes in tritium concentration with increasing degree of enrichment of heavy water.
Drowning regression line for tritium concentration in heavy water purity

Keywords

Main Subjects

Experimental and Theoretical Nuclear Physics

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Radiation Physics and Engineering

Measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water by azeotropic distillation

References

References

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 March 2023

Measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water by azeotropic distillation

References

References

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript Available Online from 01 March 2023

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 March 2023