Process and Plant Design

10,000 mole/h D₂ Molecular Sieve Dryer Skid / Light Gas Regeneration /  Low Exit Dew Points & Measurement / Tritiated Water Equipment & Valves

Kinectrics provides advanced design capabilities for tritium systems and has been involved with the design of the Fuel Processing Loop for NET. More recently, Kinectrics designed the Deuterium Purification System and the Cryogenic Distillation System for the Large Scale Wolsong Tritium Removal Plant in Korea.

The process steps include low temperature catalytic oxidation for oxygen removal, dual bed regenerative molecular sieve drying, cryogenic adsorption of impurities and cryogenic distillation of hydrogen using helium refrigeration.

The distillation system produces >99% pure T2, which is transferred to metal hydride beds for safe, secure long-term storage.  Initially the distillation system will process 50,000 Curies of tritium every 8 hours to storage.  This cascade is powered by a 35 kW helium refrigerator.

The CD is the result of a 20 year development effort that included:

• Multi-column design
• Modeling of distillation columns for Hydrogen Isotope Separation including Pulsed Feeds
• Feed points
• Packing selection
• Condenser / reboiler designs
• Cool down / warm up limits / requirements
• Code Requirements for low temperature materials, etc
• Materials for beta and gamma activity
• High leak integrity systems
• Design & construction of distillation columns
• High vacuum systems
• Temperature Instrumentation
• Control methodology
• Design of vacuum jacketing of lines
• Design of double containment
• Design & construction of auxiliary equipment / plate HX / gas pumps for CD
• Transportation requirements
• Failure scenarios

The overall plant design including the Deuterium Purification System involved:

• Design reviews & design activities including:
• Design, reliability lifetime requirements
• Flow sheets & drawings
• Nuclear classifications
• Physical properties database
• Momentum, heat and mass balances
• Piping & instrument diagrams complete with equipment, valve, instrument and line numbers, material specs,
• Quality code requirements
• Electrical code requirements for hazardous areas
• Mechanical / seismic code requirements
• Jurisdictional requirements
• HAZOP
• Safety instrumented system requirements
• Interfaces with other systems requirements
• Utilities Requirements
• Overpressure protection & report
• Licensing support / inventories
• Space / layout requirements
• General arrangement drawings
• Design verification
• Technical specifications
• Component specification sheets
• Material requirements
• Instrument requirements for hazardous areas
• Inspection and test requirements
• Shipping requirements
• Nuclear equipment suppliers list
• Engineering Quotation Requests
• Bid Evaluations
• Manufacturing / witnessing plans
• Detailed documents / drawings review & acceptance
• Design & inspection reports
• Design registration
• Design manual preparation
• Instrument loop narratives
• Operating manual preparation (start-up, shutdown normal / abnormal)
• Maintenance manual & spares
• Installation & commissioning support
• Plant performance acceptance
• Project engineering

For more information, contact:

Jeff Robins, 416.207.6000 Ext 6083, jeff.robins@kinectrics.com

Vic Singh, 416.207.6000 Ext 6818, vic.singh@kinectrics.com