Investigation of T2O production in Heavy Water production process

In this research investigated the tritiated water concentration process in heavy water production process. For this purpose sampling were taken in different stage of heavy water enrichment in Arak Heavy Water Plant. Tritium concentration was measured using Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC) based on β-decay of tritium isotope. Azeotropic distillation was applied as a sample preparation method to clean up of samples before measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water. In the specific condition and special care out prepared different samples of heavy water. Tritium specific activity determined in heavy water enrichment 0.35%, 13.5%, 35.20%, 56.16%, 58.20%, 77.5% and 99.8%. The obtained specific activity varied from 14.86 ± 0.80 to 52.19 ± 1.01 TU in the samples. Coefficient correlation between tritium specific activity and enrichment degree of D2O obtained 0.853. In the case of heavy water with 99.8% enrichment of D2O a deviation was observed from direct line which cause to decrease of R2.