TRITIUM PRODUCTION IN LWR AND HWR REACTOR ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Tritium produced by various nuclear reactions in light water coolant in LWR and in heavy water coolant and moderator in HWR is one of the radionuclides that limits release of radioactive water into environment in currently operated reactors. On the other hand, fusion reactors would require large amount of tritium to start their operation. Tritium-producing burnable absorber rods made from lithium pellets placed in PWR and tritium removal facility processing heavy water from CANDU reactors are the two options for the start of fusion reactor fleet before its sustainable production from lithium blanket in fusion reactors. In the paper, tritium production in coolant and moderator of four reactors is calculated and compared in order to determine whether the production scale is large enough to be interesting for fusion applications or it would remain a limiting activity of radioactive water release. Two large-scale reactors (VVER-1000 and CANDU 6) and two small-scale reactors (NuScale and Teplator) are analysed by Monte Carlo simulation to compare two LWR and two HWR reactor designs as well as two large and two small designs.