Tritium Impact and Transfer in Advanced Nuclear Reactors

Partners

University of Plymouth CEA Aix-Marseille Université Sapienza Università di Roma Jožef Stefan Institute B&C Tech Solutions IFIN-HH Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Université de Rouen Normandie Università di Pavia
IRSN ENEA Università degli Studi di Trieste KIT — Karlsruher Institut für Technologie UK Atomic Energy Authority SCK CEN Politecnico di Torino LGI Sustainable Innovation CIEMAT RINA

One of the biggest challenges today's world faces is the energy transition, with the growing population combined with the continuous increase in energy demand, the need to strive towards reliable energy production with low environmental impact is paramount. Providing a future energy mix where electricity production from nuclear energy as well as other renewable and carbon free sources play an important role as we transition to clean energy solutions.

TITANS combined the expertise of international experts from material sciences, process engineering, biology, environmental sciences and modelling into a transdisciplinary project concentrating on the management of nuclear facilities. The project focused on tritium management, specifically, tritium permeation mitigation, tritium safety, and tritium capturing to minimise tritium release within nuclear reactors/facilities.

TITANS endeavoured to find a solution to tritium permeation, released into the environment, health effects during dismantling activities as well as a method of capturing, storing, and recycling tritium. The project ran from September 2022 to August 2025, and contributed to, not only, mitigating nuclear environmental impact, but also, facilitating the growing nuclear energy demand as Europe, and our world, transition to low-carbon energy sources.

The TITANS Project received funding from the European Union under the Grant Agreement No 101059408. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Atomic Energy Community ('EC-Euratom'). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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Project Results

Publications

  1. Gen IV International Forum, Framework Agreement
  2. Leskelä, M., & Ritala, M., (2002). Atomic layer deposition (ALD): From precursors to thin film structures. Thin Solid Films
  3. Shimada, M., & Pawelko, B., (2014). Tritium Permeation Activity at Safety and Tritium Applied Research (STAR) facility. Fusion Safety Program Idaho National Laboratory
  4. Ferreira, M-F., Turner, A., Vernon, E.L., Grisolia, C., Lebaron-Jacobs, L., Malard, V., & Jha, A.N. (2023). Tritium: Its relevance, sources and impacts on non-human biota.
  5. Silvano Tosti (21 September 2023). Gas Chromatography and Thermal Cycling Absorption Techniques for Hydrogen Isotopes Separation in Water Detritiation Systems
  6. Markelj, S., Cvetinovic, A., Lipoglavšek, M., Kelemen, M., Čekada, M., Pelicon, P., Payet, M., Grisolia, C. (March 2024). Determination of Tritium-Helium-3 differential cross-section in the energy range between 0.6 MeV and 3.3 MeV for tritium depth profiling in solids.
  7. Vankrunkelsven, A., Dylst, K., D'Joos, Y., (July 2024). Tritium Release During Different Decommissioning Techniques.
  8. Cuerda-Velázquez, G., Carella, E., Monclús, M., Mendez-González, Y., Sánchez, F.J., Gonzalez-Arrabal, R. (March 2025). Deposition of amorphous SiC coatings by RF sputtering and properties optimization for multifunctional barrier applications in the breeding blanket of nuclear fusion reactors
  9. F. Larese Filon et al. Skin absorption of metals derived from hydrogenated stainless particles in human skin: Results from the TITANS project, Environmental Pollution 364 (2025) 125327
  10. Favre, A., Abad, A., Poux, A., Berjaoui, A., Morel, V. and Bultel A. (2025) Towards real-time calibration-free LIBS supported by machine learning, Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, Volume 224, 107082
  11. Favre, A. et al. (2025). MERLIN, an adaptative LTE radiative transfer model for any mixture: Validation on Eurofer97 in argon atmosphere, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 330, 109222
  12. R. González-Arrabal, E. Carella, F.J. Sánchez, G. de la Cuerda-Velázquez, G. García, J.M. Perlado, T. Hernández, (2023) Characterization of the lithium concentration and distribution as a function of depth for alumina coatings after exposure to PbLi, Journal of Nuclear Materials. 586, 154688
  13. Ferreira, M-F., Turner, A., Payet, M., Debellemaniere, O., Grisolia, C., Malard, V., Moore, M-N., Jha, A-N., Epigenetic and genotoxic effects of tritium in marine mussels: Comparing waterborne and metal-associated forms, Environmental Pollution Volume 384, (1 November 2025), 127002. 586, 154688
  14. Stokes, T., Grove, W., Hall-Bromley, J., Heristchian, D., and Reynold, S. Investigations into Dust Waste Treatment for Nuclear Fusion, Fusion Science and Technology, (January 2026), https://doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2025.2605607
  15. Ferreira, M. F., Tuner, A., Payet, M., Debellemaniere, O., Grisolia, C., Lebaron-Jacobs, L., Malard, V., Moore, M. N., and Jha, A.N., Tritium forms and food availability modulate biological effects in marine mussels, (July 2026), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2026.128254