Tritium extraction in aluminum metal by heating method without melting

Abstract

Tritium was extracted from tritium-contaminated aluminum samples by heating it in a high-temperature furnace at 200, 300, or 400 °C for 15 h. The extracted tritium was analyzed by using a liquid scintillation counter (LSC); the sample thicknesses were 0.4 and 2 mm. The differences in tritium extraction over time were also investigated by cutting aluminum stick samples into several pieces (1, 5, 10, and 15) with the same thickness, and subsequently heating them. The results revealed that there are most of the hydrated material based on tritium on the surface of aluminum. When the temperature was increased from 200 or 300 °C–400 °C, there are no large differences in the heating duration required for the radioactivity concentration to be lower than the MDA value. Additionally, at the same thickness, because the surface of aluminum is only contaminated to tritiated water, cutting the aluminum samples into several pieces (5, 10, and 15) did not have a substantial effect on the tritium extraction fraction at any of the applied heating temperatures (200, 300, or 400 °C). The proportion of each tritium-release materials (aluminum hydrate based on tritium) were investigated via diverse analyses (LSC, XRD, and SEM-EDS).