Results in Engineering (Mar 2024)
The activation study of activated charcoal for radioactive off-gas treatment systems in NPPs
Abstract
In the present study, the heat activation and vacuum activation have been used to re-increase the adsorbed amount of Xe and Kr on activated charcoal for radioactive off-gas treatment systems in NPPs. There are, however, the dangers that the residual radioactive contaminants have been released into environment, and the charcoal has been poorly activated during the regeneration. Based on the adsorption properties of activated charcoal from other studies, the experimental on temperature, time, airflow, vacuum, and radioactivity in the environment, carried out in laboratories and nuclear power plants, have been applied as verify effectiveness of activation and radioactive material control. The final test results show that the water content of charcoal decreased by 4.03 % after 48-h heating at the gas flow of 180 N/m³ and 160 °C and 24-h vacuuming. In addition, the test controlled the residual radioactive contaminants by airflow adjustment and three-stage filtration. The developed activation processes based on heat and vacuum technology with supporting equipment, which are adapted to radioactive charcoal with different water contents for radioactive off-gas treatment systems, can be carried out online on nuclear power plant systems.
