Effect of Hydrocarbons on the Efficiency of Catalytic Reactor of Detritiation System in an Event of Fire

Detritiation system of a nuclear fusion plant is mandatory to be designed and qualified taking carefully into consideration all the possible extraordinary situations in addition to that in a normal condition. We focused on the change in the efficiency of tritium oxidation of a catalytic reactor in an event of fire where the air accompanied with hydrocarbons, water vapor, and tritium is fed into a catalytic reactor at the same time. Our test results on the effect of these gases on the efficiency of tritium oxidation of the catalytic reactor indicated; (1) tritiated hydrocarbon produces significantly by reaction between tritium and hydrocarbons in a catalytic reactor; (2) there is little possibility of degradation in the detritiation performance because the tritiated hydrocarbons produced in the catalyst reactor are combusted; (3) there is no possibility of uncontrollable rise in the temperature of the catalytic reactor by heat of reactions; and (4) saturated water vapor could temporarily poison the catalyst and degrades the detritiation performance. Our investigation indicated a saturated water vapor condition without hydrocarbons would be the dominant scenario to determine the amount of catalyst for the design of catalytic reactor of the detritiation system.