Radiation dose due to tritium release from the ITER neutral beam injector

The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) will be located in the area of the RFX Consortium, (Council of National Researches – CNR), in Padua, Italy. The ITER NB accelerates negative deuterium ions with maximum energy of 1 MeV and maximum beam current of 40 A. The production of tritium from this facility, mainly due to the D–D nuclear reaction on the injector calorimeter, might be a concern from the radiological safety point of view. In the present paper, tritium release in atmosphere is evaluated. Analysis was performed using three different computer codes. Different release scenarios were taken into account, and doses to reference groups (population and workers) were calculated. Our results show that the dose limit of 1 mSv/year stated by Italian law for the population is not exceeded around the facility and away from it. Even considering the most conservative scenario, the dose rate per year to the reference group is about three order of magnitude lower than the dose limit.