Pressure and temperature transients of a cryogenic distillation system during abnormal operation or accidents

Cryogenic distillation system (CDS) is being employed, among other applications, in tritium separation technologies. CDS in combination with a Liquid Phase Catalytic Exchange (LPCE) process or with a Combined Electrolytic Catalytic Exchange (CECE) process is used for tritium removal/recovery from tritiated water. amounts of tritiated water can be produced during long time operation of CANDU reactors or in case of ITER mainly by the Detritiation System (DS). S used to remove/recover tritium consists of a cascade of cryogenic distillation columns and a refrigeration unit which provides the cooling capacity for the condensers of CD columns. The columns, together with the condensers and the process heat-exchangers are accommodated in a vacuum insulated cold box. abnormal events or accidents, significant amount of liquid hydrogen–deuterium–tritium or helium refrigerant can be spilt inside the cold box or even into the building. The paper analyzes some critical scenarios due to single failure mode or various combinations of failures such as:- f refrigerant in the columns; f vacuum insulation; s liquid spilt into the cold box; erant fails into cryogenic distillation columns. udy presented in the paper is concerning to Tritium Removal Facility from NPP Cernavoda but gives information and some references for the methodology that can be implemented for ITER Isotope Separation System.