Hydrogen production in radiolysis of the mixture of mordenite and seawater

Kumagai, Yuta   ; Nagaishi, Ryuji ; Kimura, Atsushi; Taguchi, Mitsumasa; Nishihara, Kenji  ; Yamagishi, Isao 

For decontamination of radioactive water containing salts from seawater in Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station, zeolite is used as adsorbent for radioactive Cs. The management of hydrogen produced by radiolysis of water in the zeolite waste is important for safe storage of the waste. Thus hydrogen production from the mixture of mordenite-type zeolite and seawater was studied. The hydrogen yield from the mixture decreased monotonically as the weight fraction of seawater was decreased. However, the measured yield was higher than the yield expected from the weight fraction of seawater, supposing that mordenite has no effect. The result suggests that hydrogen was produced in another pathway besides the direct radiolysis of seawater in the presence of mordenite but its efficiency of the hydrogen production was lower than the direct radiolysis of seawater. The radiation energy deposited to mordenite is expected to be involved in the radiolysis of the adsorbed water.