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Tritium Impact and Transfer in Advanced Nuclear reactorS

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

Advanced assessment of tritium impacts at fusion/fission facilities

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It is very rare, produced naturally in the upper atmosphere, during nuclear weapons explosions and as a by-product in nuclear reactors. Research is needed to control tritium discharges from existing fission installations, temporary storage or spent nuclear fuel repositories and future fusion power plants. Building on the outcomes of the EU-funded TRANSAT project, the EU-funded TITANS project will improve modelling tools to assess tritium inventory/migration in nuclear fission/fusion reactors, measure tritium release during dismantling of a tritium-contaminated setup, develop a mobile device for tritiated water processing and assess human and environmental toxicity impacts after accidental release.

Objective

The TITANS (Tritium Impact and Transfer in Advanced Nuclear reactorS) multidisciplinary project is built to contribute to Research and Innovation to “improve knowledge on tritium management in fission/fusion facilities” and provide ”robust science to EU safety regulators, radiation protection authorities and decision makers”. TITANS will answer the main challenges of the call: i) Tritium permeation description and associated modeling, ii) tritium measurement, iii) mitigation of tritium release, iv) gain expertise on dismantling activities, v) improve knowledge in radiotoxicity and radiobiology, both combined to dosimetry specific to each biological model studied. The TITANS work program is established from the results obtained in the former EU TRANSAT project and thanks to scientific discussion within TRANSAT SAC, TITANS members and external experts from EU/broader countries.
TITANS will improve modelling tools to assess tritium inventory/migration in nuclear fission/fusion reactors in order to identify where the new barrier concept developed within TITANS are needed to limit the spread of tritium. The tritium release during dismantling of tritium-contaminated setup will be evaluated with the help of innovative tritium inventory measurement techniques developed within TITANS. Finally, to ensure tritium circular economy, a mobile device for tritiated water processing will be developed.
At last, human and environmental toxicity impacts after an accidental release of tritiated particles will be assessed through studies on i) the behaviour of aerosols in the environment, ii) biological effects on a mussels population, iii) biokinetics by the skin route and iiii) genotoxic effects on human lung macrophages. In order to estimate a dose-response relationship, a dosimetric study specific to each organism or cell type will be carried out.
This 3 years project with a 3 M€ allocated budget gathers 21 partners from European countries and UK all involved in tritium activities

Fields of science

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

HORIZON-EURATOM-2021-NRT-01

See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

EURATOM-RIA - EURATOM Research and Innovation Actions

Coordinator

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
Net EU contribution
€ 744 409,00
Address
RUE LEBLANC 25
75015 PARIS 15
France

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Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 1 000 768,75

Participants (20)

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Last update: 27 October 2022

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101059408

European Union, 2024