Abstract
The 60Co γ-ray radiolysis of simulated nitric acid solutions was examined with a laboratory-scale apparatus in order to evaluate the amount of hydrogen released from high-level liquid waste (HLLW) in nuclear fuel reprocessing. The authors studied the effects of several factors on hydrogen release from aqueous nitric acid solution with bubbling. In the experiment, nitric acid concentration ranged from 0.1 to 8.0M, dose rate ranged from 0.24 to 4.5kGy/h, and the temperature was 30°C.
The amounts of hydrogen released increased linearly with dose. The primary molecular hydrogen yield, per energy absorption of 100eV, G(H2), was indepent of the dose rate, and decreased nearly exponentially with increasing the nitric acid concentration. The G(H2) values for 2 to 5M nitric acid concentration corresponding to that of HLLW were in the range from 0.01 to 0.044. These values are about 20% less than reported data on radiolysis of deaerated nitric acid solutions in glass ampoules.
