Gaseous Radioactive Waste Processing System

Main description

Framatome´s Gaseous Radioactive Waste Processing System serves multiple purposes in a nuclear power plant. It is usually connected to components that handle and store primary coolant, and as a result, significant releases of dissolved gases are expected. The system limits the concentration of hydrogen or oxygen in both itself and in connected components to below the flammability limits and catalytically recombines hydrogen and oxygen into water. For Pressurized Water Reactors the Gaseous Radioactive Waste Processing System and the connected systems and components form a quasi-closed-loop configuration in which the purge gas is conditioned and reused. Reusing the purge gas (nitrogen) limits the demand for nitrogen and minimizes the generation of excess gas. If excess gas needs to be discharged into the environment, the gas stream is routed through a delay bed section filled with activated carbon. Increasing the residence time of radioactive noble gases in the delay section allows the radioactive noble gases (xenon and krypton) to decay, ensuring that the release of radioactivity is kept as low as reasonably achievable.

Framatome is qualified and has the expertise and knowledge to design and supply complete Gaseous Radioactive Waste Processing System solutions, or specific nuclear-qualified system components for different types of reactors, as PWR, BWR and SMR. Framatome provides related studies to evaluate existing system installations for optimization or to improve system’s robustness, performance or availability.