Decontamination studies of Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute Fuel Cleanup System and glovebox installed at the Tritium Systems Test Assembly

The JAERI Fuel Cleanup System, a major fusion fuel processing system that has been used for four years with DT and impurity mixtures, has been decontaminated and decommissioned at the Tritium Systems Test Assembly. The system is composed of several processing components that were exposed to either DT gas or tritiated water vapor during operations. The entire system was contained in a large glovebox. Decontamination was first performed by purging and circulating various gases such as He, H₂ and room air through the system. The effectiveness of the decontamination methods are compared. Residual contamination of the system materials such as metals, catalysts and molecular sieves were measured and will be presented here. After gas purging, the plumbing and components were disassembled and packaged for ultimate disposal according to the procedures and regulations for the TSTA, LANL, and DOE. The waste packages will be buried at the LANL waste disposal site