The Tritium Lifecycle and It’s Environmental Impacts

Abstract

Tritium is a naturally occurring radioisotope of hydrogen that is ubiquitous within the nuclear industry. With increased investments in advanced reactors and fusion, there is now greater interest in tritium production, availability, and use for future clean energy needs. Therefore, an increased understanding of tritium production, physical and chemical transformations, and the environmental impact of tritium is needed to anticipate the impact of these technologies. I will present on the stages of the tritium lifecycle and how tritium moves in the environment. I will also present a case-study based on the tritium needs for fusion and its potential regional and global impacts.

Biography

Staff physicist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Stephanie Lyons graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2016 with a PhD in nuclear physics. She has over 10 years of experience in low-energy nuclear physics including experimental design, detector simulation and modeling, and accelerator operation. Since joining PNNL, she has been working within the Detection Physics Group on a variety of nonproliferation areas including studying tritium movement within the environment. Lyons also leads several nuclear data projects at PNNL. She serves as one of PNNL’s Nuclear Data Working Group representatives and is the Science Lead for a large, multi-lab project focused on tritium science.