阅读说明：本技术 一种适用于含氚氦气回路的实验室支持系统 (Laboratory support system suitable for contain tritium helium gas return circuit ) 是由 张亮 孙胜 张帅 曹娜 吴红伟 戴钰冰 赵文斌 江丽娟 林瑞霄 莫华均 于 2019-09-19 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种适用于含氚氦气回路的实验室支持系统,本系统可容纳含氚氦气回路、并为回路的启停提供支持性功能,可包容并去除含氚氦气回路泄露的氚,从而减少甚至消除氚泄露的危害；本系统包括手套箱、真空系统、手套箱气体循环系统；手套箱用于包容整个含氚氦-3气体回路；真空系统用于提供氦气回路启动时所需的真空条件；手套箱气体循环系统用于含氚氦气回路所有设备的通风冷却、泄露至手套箱中微量含氚气体的去除；本发明可用于功率跃增装置的氦-3气体回路的辅助系统,可去除渗透进入手套箱的微量氚,从而有效减少氚泄露产生的放射性危害。(The invention discloses a laboratory support system suitable for a tritium-containing helium loop, which can accommodate the tritium-containing helium loop, provide a support function for starting and stopping the loop, and contain and remove tritium leaked from the tritium-containing helium loop, thereby reducing or even eliminating the damage of the tritium leakage; the system comprises a glove box, a vacuum system and a glove box gas circulation system; the glove box is used for containing the whole tritium-helium-3-containing gas loop; the vacuum system is used for providing vacuum conditions required when the helium loop is started; the glove box gas circulation system is used for ventilating and cooling all equipment of a tritium-containing helium loop and removing trace tritium-containing gas leaked into the glove box; the invention can be used for an auxiliary system of a helium-3 gas loop of a power jump device, and can remove trace tritium permeating into a glove box, thereby effectively reducing radioactive hazards generated by tritium leakage.)

1. A laboratory support system adapted for use with a tritiated helium gas circuit, the laboratory support system comprising: glove box, vacuum system, glove box gas circulation system; the glove box is used for accommodating an out-of-stack system part of the tritium-containing helium circuit, and the vacuum system is used for providing a vacuum condition required when the helium circuit is started; the glove box gas circulation system is used for ventilating and cooling all devices of the tritium-containing helium circuit, and removing tritium gas leaked into the glove box.

2. A laboratory support system suitable for use with tritiated helium circuits according to claim 1, wherein the vacuum system comprises a molecular pump, first and second vacuum pumps in parallel, a buffer tank, a tritium monitor, a vent central connection, and corresponding gas lines and valves; when the helium loop is started, the vacuum system firstly utilizes the first vacuum pump or the second vacuum pump to pump out gas in the helium loop, and the gas is sent to a ventilation center of a research reactor for collecting and discharging waste gas after passing through the buffer tank, the tritium monitor and the ventilation center connecting pipe in sequence.

3. A laboratory support system suitable for use in tritiated helium circuits as claimed in claim 1 wherein glove box gas circulation system comprises air intake, air cooler, first and second air compression pumps, exhaust, first and second molecular sieves, inert gas environment tritium capture system and corresponding gas piping and valves; when the helium-3 gas loop normally runs, gas in the glove box enters the glove box gas circulation system from the gas suction port, enters the air cooler through the bypass pipeline, is driven by the compression pump or the compression pump after being cooled, and is sent back to the glove box through the corresponding pipeline and the gas exhaust port of the glove box gas circulation system.

4. A laboratory support system suitable for use with a tritium-containing helium circuit as claimed in claim 2, wherein during evacuation of the helium circuit, the gas pumped out by the first vacuum pump or the second vacuum pump is passed through a tritium detector to measure tritium content; if the content of the extracted gas tritium exceeds the standard, the third air compressor pump conveys the gas back to the glove box, otherwise, the gas is directly discharged into the ventilation center.

5. A laboratory support system for use with a tritiated helium circuit according to claim 2, characterized in that the molecular pump is bypassed and not operated during the initial period of helium circuit evacuation; and in the later stage of vacuumizing, closing the valve of the bypass pipeline, starting the molecular pump, and continuously vacuumizing until the vacuum condition required by the helium loop is achieved.

6. A laboratory support system for a tritiated helium circuit as claimed in claim 3 wherein the downstream line of the first compression pump has a branch line for sampling, the tritium content of the gas in the glove box is detected by the tritium monitor from the sampled gas, and the tritium is returned to the exhaust port by the third compression pump and discharged into the glove box.

7. A laboratory support system suitable for use with tritiated helium circuits according to claim 3, characterized by a branch line consisting of a first molecular sieve, a second molecular sieve and an inert gas ambient tritium capture system being enabled if tritium content measured by a tritium detector of gas sampled downstream of the first barometer exceeds standard; partial flow glove box gas firstly enters a first molecular sieve or a second molecular sieve, enters an inert gas environment tritium trapping system after water vapor is removed, and returns to an inlet of an air cooler.

8. A laboratory support system for a tritiated helium gas circuit as claimed in claim 3, wherein a branch line for sampling is provided at the outlet of the tritium trap in an inert gas environment, and after the tritium content is measured by the tritium monitor, the tritium is delivered back to the glove box by a third air pump.

9. A laboratory support system suitable for use in a tritiated helium circuit according to claim 1, characterized in that the vacuum system comprises two first and second vacuum pumps that are on standby for each other; the glove box air circulation system comprises a first air compression pump, a second air compression pump, a first molecular sieve and a second molecular sieve, wherein the first air compression pump and the second air compression pump are mutually standby.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of reactor irradiation, in particular to a laboratory support system suitable for a tritium-containing helium gas loop.

Background

The fuel element power jump irradiation test is generally carried out on a research reactor by adopting a special power jump irradiation test device; verification of fuel element performance parameters and safety margins is performed by varying the power of the fuel element in a short time. In order to carry out power jump irradiation tests on pressurized water reactor fuel cells in research reactors, some foreign research reactors, such as the HBWR reactor in norway, the BR2 reactor in belgium, the swedish R2 reactor and the JMTR reactor in japan, use a helium-3 gas circuit as a power regulating device for the fuel cells. By varying the study of gaseous neutron poisons in the helium shield in the reactor (³He gas), effectively adjusting the irradiation power of the test fuel element.

With helium-3 gas circuits in the core active zone of the research reactor³He gas, which absorbs thermal neutrons in the reactor and produces tritium (a) which is a radioactive hazard³H) In that respect Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, and has strong penetrating power in a gas state; tritium at a higher temperature can easily permeate a metal material to be made into a container, and then is leaked into the environment. The penetration capacity of tritium increases sharply with increasing temperature. In engineering practice, in a tritium-containing helium loop for a power jump irradiation device, trace permeation leakage of tritium is difficult to avoid; and the possibility of large-scale leakage of tritium-containing helium in the loop under accident conditions needs to be considered.

Disclosure of Invention

Because tritium has great radioactive hazard, great pressure is brought to radiation protection and environmental protection of test personnel. Therefore, for a laboratory provided with a tritium-containing helium loop, a related support system needs to be designed to accommodate the tritium-containing helium loop and provide support for starting and stopping the loop; more importantly, the leaked tritium is contained and removed, thereby reducing or even eliminating the damage of the tritium leakage.

The invention aims to obtain a laboratory support system suitable for a tritium-containing helium gas loop, which provides an auxiliary function for a helium-3 gas loop of a power jump device. The invention can provide the initial vacuumizing function and the integral cooling function of helium loop equipment for the tritium-containing helium loop, and can remove trace tritium gas permeating into the glove box, thereby effectively reducing radioactive hazards generated by tritium leakage.

In engineering practice, in a tritium-containing helium loop for a power jump irradiation device, leakage of trace permeation of tritium is inevitable. Because tritium has great radioactive hazard, great pressure is brought to radiation protection and environmental protection of test personnel. For a laboratory provided with a tritium-containing helium loop, the invention provides a complete set of design scheme of a laboratory support system, which can accommodate the tritium-containing helium loop, provide support for starting and stopping and cooling the helium loop, and contain and remove tritium leaked from the loop, thereby reducing or even eliminating the damage of tritium leakage.

The helium-3 gas loop consists of a helium screen inside the stack and a loop outside the stack.³He gas is driven by a gas circulating pump³He gas is delivered to a helium shield within the stack,³he and generated by absorbing thermal neutrons³And (3) allowing the mixed gas consisting of H to flow out of the helium screen and enter a tritium trap, and returning the mixed gas to the inlet of the gas circulating pump after tritium is removed by the tritium trap.

The tritium-containing helium loop laboratory support system comprises a high-tightness glove box, a vacuum system and a glove box gas circulation system. The high-tightness glove box is used for containing the whole tritium-helium-3-containing gas loop; the vacuum system is used for providing high vacuum conditions required when the helium gas loop is started; the glove box gas circulation system is used for ventilating and cooling all devices of the tritium-containing helium loop and removing trace tritium gas leaked into the glove box.

The glove box is used as a secondary containing system of a tritium-containing helium loop and comprises an off-stack system of the whole helium-3 gas loop. The glove box is designed by adopting a coated stainless steel box body and is provided with a certain number of observation windows and glove interfaces so as to facilitate the operation of the glove box; the operating gloves and the sealing part adopt butyl synthetic rubber with good tritium-proof permeability. And a process room where the glove box is located is subjected to circulating ventilation by adopting a research stack ventilation system.

The vacuum system is used for pumping out gas in the helium loop and providing high vacuum conditions required when the helium loop is started. The vacuum system consists of 2 vacuum pumps, 1 molecular pump and related pipelines and valves. The vacuum pump is used for standby, a vacuum environment is initially established after pipeline gas is pumped out by the vacuum pump, and then the pipeline gas is further pumped to the high vacuum environment by the molecular pump. The extracted gas is exhausted through an exhaust system buffer tank or is exhausted into the glove box through an exhaust pipe of a glove box gas circulation system.

The glove box gas circulation system takes away heat release of a helium pipeline and other equipment in the glove box by circulating gas in the glove box. Tritium and tritium water in the mixed gas are removed from the gas in the glove box at a certain flow rate sequentially through the molecular sieve and the inert gas environment tritium trapping system, so that the tritium content in the gas in the glove box is effectively controlled. The glove box gas circulation system consists of an air cooler, 2 compression pumps, 2 molecular sieves, an inert gas environment tritium trapping system, and related pipelines, valves and instrument control equipment. The air compression pump and the molecular sieve are in double configuration, and one is used for standby.

Preferably, when the helium loop is started, the vacuum system firstly utilizes a vacuum pump to pump out gas in the helium loop, sequentially passes through the buffer tank, the tritium monitor and the ventilation center connecting pipe, and is sent to a ventilation center of the research reactor for collecting and discharging waste gas; the glove box gas circulation system comprises an air suction port, an air cooler, a first compression pump, a second compression pump, an air exhaust port, a first molecular sieve, a second molecular sieve, an inert gas environment tritium trapping system, a corresponding gas pipeline and a corresponding valve. When the helium-3 gas loop normally runs, gas in the glove box enters the glove box gas circulation system from the gas suction port, directly enters the air cooler through the bypass pipeline, is driven by the first compression pump or the second compression pump after being cooled, and is sent back to the glove box through the corresponding pipeline of the glove box gas circulation system and the gas exhaust port.

Preferably, in the process of vacuumizing the helium loop, the gas pumped out by the vacuum pump is firstly used for measuring the tritium content by a tritium detector; if the content of the extracted gas tritium exceeds the standard, the third air compressor pump conveys the gas back to the glove box, otherwise, the gas is directly discharged into the ventilation center.

Preferably, the molecular pump is bypassed and not operated during the initial period of helium circuit evacuation; and in the later stage of vacuumizing, closing the valve of the bypass pipeline, starting the molecular pump, and continuously vacuumizing until the high vacuum condition required by the helium loop is achieved.

Preferably, the pipeline at the downstream of the first compression pump is provided with a branch pipeline for sampling, the tritium content of the gas in the glove box can be detected by a tritium monitor through a small-flow sampling gas, and the tritium content is conveyed back to the exhaust port by a third compression pump and then is discharged into the glove box.

Preferably, if the tritium content of the gas sampled at the downstream of the first compression pump measured by a tritium detector exceeds the standard, starting a branch pipeline consisting of the first molecular sieve, the second molecular sieve and the inert gas environment tritium trapping system; partial flow glove box gas firstly enters a first molecular sieve or a second molecular sieve, most of water vapor is removed, then the glove box gas enters an inert gas environment tritium trapping system, and the tritium content is greatly reduced and then the glove box gas returns to an inlet of an air cooler.

Preferably, in order to detect the tritium removing efficiency of the tritium trapping system in the inert gas environment, a branch pipeline for sampling is arranged at the outlet of the tritium trap, and after the tritium content is measured by a tritium monitor, the tritium is conveyed back to the glove box by a third air compressor pump.

Preferably, the vacuum system comprises a first vacuum pump and a second vacuum pump which are standby each other; the glove box air circulation system comprises a first air compression pump, a second air compression pump, a first molecular sieve and a second molecular sieve, wherein the first air compression pump and the second air compression pump are mutually standby.

One or more technical solutions provided by the present application have at least the following technical effects or advantages:

1) according to the invention, the high-sealing glove box is used as a secondary containing system of the tritium-containing helium circuit, so that uncontrolled release of tritium-containing gas under the accident working condition of breakage of the tritium-containing helium circuit is effectively prevented, and leakage of the tritium-containing gas to the environment under the normal working condition is reduced, thereby remarkably improving the safety of a laboratory.

2) The vacuum system adopted by the invention can effectively establish the high vacuum condition of the helium loop, thereby providing conditions for the starting and the operation of the helium loop.

3) The glove box gas circulation system adopted by the invention can effectively remove tritium leaked by helium loop permeation while taking away the whole helium loop for heat dissipation, thereby obviously reducing radioactive hazards caused by tritium leakage of the tritium-containing helium loop.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention;

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the components of a laboratory support system suitable for use in a tritiated helium circuit;

reference numbers and corresponding part names in the drawings:

1-helium screen, 2-tritium trap, 3-helium loop circulating pump, 4-glove box, 101-molecular pump, 102-first vacuum pump, 103-second vacuum pump, 104-buffer tank, 105-tritium monitor, 106-ventilation center connecting pipe, 201-air suction port, 202-air cooler, 203-first pressure air pump, 204-second pressure air pump, 205-air outlet, 206-first molecular sieve, 207-second molecular sieve, 208-inert gas environment tritium trapping system and 209-third pressure air pump.

Detailed Description

In order that the above objects, features and advantages of the present invention can be more clearly understood, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to the appended drawings. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other without conflicting with each other.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, however, the present invention may be practiced in other ways than those specifically described and thus the scope of the present invention is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

Referring to FIG. 1, the laboratory support system for the tritium-containing helium circuit shown in FIG. 1 includes a high-sealing glove box, a vacuum system, and a glove box gas circulation system.

The high-sealing glove box 4 completely contains the part of the system outside the reactor of the tritium-containing helium loop, and the glove box is filled with nitrogen.

The vacuum system comprises a molecular pump 101, a first vacuum pump 102 and a second vacuum pump 103 which are connected in parallel, a buffer tank 104, a tritium monitor 105, a ventilation center connecting pipe 106, and corresponding gas pipelines and valves. When the helium loop is started, the vacuum system firstly utilizes the vacuum pump to pump out the gas in the helium loop, and the gas passes through the buffer tank, the tritium monitor and the ventilation center connecting pipe in sequence and is sent to the ventilation center of the research reactor for collecting and discharging the waste gas. In the process of vacuumizing a helium loop, detecting the content of tritium by a tritium detector by using gas pumped by a vacuum pump; if the content of the pumped gas tritium exceeds the standard, the third air compression pump 209 is conveyed back to the glove box, otherwise, the gas is directly discharged into the ventilation center. In the initial stage of evacuation, the molecular pump 101 is bypassed and is not operated; and in the later period of vacuumizing, closing the valve of the bypass pipeline and starting the molecular pump 101 until the high vacuum condition required by the helium gas loop is achieved.

The glove box gas circulation system comprises a gas inlet 201, an air cooler 202, a first compression pump 203, a second compression pump 204, a gas outlet 205, a first molecular sieve 206, a second molecular sieve 207, an inert gas environment tritium trapping system 208, corresponding gas pipelines and valves. When the helium-3 gas loop normally operates, gas in the glove box enters the glove box gas circulation system through the gas suction port, directly enters the air cooler through the bypass pipeline, is driven by the first compression pump 203 or the second compression pump 204 after being cooled, and is sent back to the glove box through the corresponding pipeline and the exhaust port of the system. The pipeline at the lower reaches of the compression pump is provided with a branch pipeline for sampling, the tritium content of the gas in the glove box can be detected by a tritium monitor through small-flow sampling gas, and the tritium content is conveyed to an air return outlet by a third compression pump 209 and then discharged into the glove box. If the content of gas tritium in the glove box measured by the tritium detector exceeds the standard, starting a branch pipeline consisting of a molecular sieve and an inert gas environment tritium trapping system; and the glove box gas with partial flow enters a molecular sieve firstly, most of water vapor is removed, and then the glove box gas enters a tritium trapping system, and returns to the inlet of the air cooler after the tritium content is greatly reduced. In order to detect the tritium removal efficiency of the tritium trap system, a sampling branch pipeline is arranged at the outlet of the tritium trap, after the tritium content is measured by a tritium monitor, the tritium content is conveyed back to the glove box by a third pressure air pump 209, the glove box is in a nitrogen atmosphere and operates under the pressure slightly lower than the atmospheric pressure, and the leakage rate is controlled to be as low as possible.

In order to improve the reliability of key equipment, the vacuum pump, the air compression pump and the molecular sieve are in double configuration, and one is used for standby.

The laboratory support system in the embodiment of the invention can accommodate a tritium-containing helium loop, provide a support function for starting and stopping the loop, and contain and remove tritium leaked from the tritium-containing helium loop, so that the damage of tritium leakage is reduced or even eliminated.

The laboratory support system in the embodiment of the invention comprises a high-tightness glove box, a vacuum system and a glove box gas circulation system. The high-tightness glove box is used for containing the whole tritium-helium-3-containing gas loop; the vacuum system is used for providing high vacuum conditions required when the helium gas loop is started; the glove box gas circulation system is used for ventilating and cooling all devices of a tritium-containing helium loop and removing trace tritium-containing gas leaked into the glove box.

The vacuum system in the embodiment of the invention comprises a molecular pump, a first vacuum pump, a second vacuum pump, a buffer tank, a tritium monitor, a ventilation center connecting pipe, a corresponding gas pipeline and a corresponding valve, wherein the first vacuum pump and the second vacuum pump are connected in parallel; when the helium loop is started, the vacuum system firstly utilizes the vacuum pump to pump out the gas in the helium loop, and the gas passes through the buffer tank, the tritium monitor and the ventilation center connecting pipe in sequence and is sent to the ventilation center of the research reactor for collecting and discharging the waste gas.

The glove box gas circulation system in the embodiment of the invention comprises an air suction port, an air cooler, a first compression pump, a second compression pump, an air exhaust port, a first molecular sieve, a second molecular sieve, an inert gas environment tritium trapping system, a corresponding gas pipeline and a corresponding valve. When the helium-3 gas loop normally runs, gas in the glove box enters the glove box gas circulation system from the gas suction port, directly enters the air cooler through the bypass pipeline, is cooled and cooled, and is driven by the compression pump to be sent back to the glove box through the corresponding pipeline and the gas outlet. The invention can be used for an auxiliary system of a helium-3 gas loop of a power jump device, and can remove trace tritium permeating into a glove box, thereby effectively reducing radioactive hazards generated by tritium leakage.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.