Heat Treatment of Irradiated Graphite in an Oxidizing Atmosphere

Abstract

It was demonstrated that thermal treatment and decontamination methods can be used for the processing of irradiated nuclear graphite. Special features of the treatment of the irradiated graphite surface with an oxidizing agent were considered. A mathematical model of the interaction of a gaseous oxidizing agent with irradiated graphite was described with consideration for the release of stored Wigner energy. It was established that the qualitative and quantitative compositions of gaseous reaction products depend on thermal and gas-dynamic process conditions. The mathematical models and calculation algorithms proposed can be used for the process optimization of the heat treatment of irradiated graphite for the selective recovery of a number of radionuclides (mainly, ¹⁴C and ³⁶Cl), which are concentrated in a thin near-surface layer of graphite components.