Application of Silver Impregnated Iodine Adsorbent to Nuclear Facilities

Radioactive iodine is one of the most important nuclides to be prevented for release from nuclear facilities and many facilities have off-gas treatment systems to minimize the volatile nuclides dispersion to the environment. Silver impregnated inorganic adsorbents were known as inflammable and stable fixing materials for iodine and the authors started to develop 25 years ago a kind of inorganic adsorbent that has better capability compared with conventional ones. Aluminum oxide (Alumina) was selected as a carrier material and silver nitrate as an impregnated one. Pore diameters were optimized to avoid the influence of impurities such as humidity in the off-gas stream at lower temperatures. Experiments and improvements were alternately conducted for the new adsorbent. The tests were carried out in various conditions to confirm the performance of the developed adsorbent, which clarified its good ability to remove iodine. Silver nitrate impregnated alumina adsorbent (AgA) has about twice the capacity for iodine adsorption and higher iodine removal efficiency at relatively high humidity than conventional ones. The AgA chemically and stably fixes radioactive iodine and fits the storage and disposal of used adsorbent. AgA is now and will be applied to nuclear power plants, reprocessing plants, and research facilities.