Determination of chemical forms of 3H released to the atmosphere from the Tokai Reprocessing Plant

A method using a system with two sampling units was proposed to determine the chemical forms of tritium (³H) released into the atmosphere from the Tokai Reprocessing Plant (TRP). The main advantage of the method is that no carrier gas is required for sampling in the case when air to be sampled has high specific activity with tritiated hydrogen (HT). Investigations using this method showed that 19.1–28.3% of total airborne ³H was released as HT from the TRP during reprocessing operation. No clear relation was found between the ratios of HT release and the types of spent fuel reprocessed.The authors would like to thank T. Yokota, K. Isaka, T. Kozawa and Y. Adachi of Inspection Development Company, Ltd., Y. Hiyama of Zuihou Sanyou Company Ltd., and K. Miyabe, T. Mizutani, H. Watanabe, M. Takeishi and K. Shinohara of Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute for their valuable assistance.