Revaluation of hydrogen generation by water radiolysis in SDS vessels at TMI-2 accident

Nagaishi, Ryuji ; Morita, Keisuke ; Yamagishi, Isao ; Hino, Ryutaro; Ogawa, Toru

Two years after Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) loss-of-coolant accident, radioactive contaminated water has been processed by Submerged Demineralizer System (SDS) with two types of zeolite adsorbents to remove radioactive nuclides. During and after the process, adsorption amount and distribution of nuclides on the zeolites, residual water content and thermal conductivity in the SDS vessels have been measured or estimated for verification of safety in the process, subsequent transportation and disposal. Hydrogen generation has been also evaluated mainly by direct monitoring in the large-scale of vessel after the process. In this work, the revaluation of hydrogen generation was demonstrated on the basis of the open information of vessel, and the latest experimental data obtained in adsorption and radiolysis occurring in small-scale of zeolite-water mixtures. As a result, the evaluated data was found to be comparable with the reported data obtained in the large-scale of real vessel.