31H32He¯CHEMISTRY PARAMETERSDOE-HDBK-1015/2-93Reactor Water ChemistryCH-03Rev. 0Page 24Man-madeSourcesNumerous potential and actual sources of tritium production exist in the United States,the United Kingdom, France, and other countries. They include light-water reactors,heavy-water reactors, fuel reprocessing facilities, and production reactors. Light-waterreactors produce between 500 and 1000 Ci/yr of tritium in their coolant for every 1000MW(e) of power. Heavy-water reactors produce approximately 2 x 10 Ci/yr of tritium6in their coolant for every 1,000 MW(e) of power.AtomicWeight/HydrogenIsotopesThe atomic weights, symbols, and abundance of the three well-known isotopes ofhydrogen are given in Table 2. H and H are also known. However, because they decay4511in fractions of a single second, they are not extensively studied. Unless otherwisespecified in this chapter, the term hydrogen includes protium, deuterium, and tritium. H11will be used to refer to protium; confusion with elemental hydrogen will be eliminated byspelling out the latter.TABLE 2Hydrogen IsotopesPhysical CommonNameAbundanceMassSymbolSymbol(%)(amu)HHProtium99.9851.00782511HDDeuterium0.0152.0140021HTTritiumemitter*3.0160531-* 12.32-years half-lifeDisintegrationTritium decays by emitting a weak beta particle together with an antineutrino. Theproduct is helium-3. Helium is a monatomic gas; therefore, the decay of 1 mole of T2yields 2 moles of helium. This causes a pressure buildup in sealed vessels containingdiatomic tritium gas (or HT or DT gas). The following reaction is tritium disintegration.
Integrated Publishing, Inc. - A (SDVOSB) Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business