Krypton commercial production

Most krypton produced in commercial scale comes from air. Krypton and other inert gases are obtained from air by a distdlation-hquefaction process. Different types of air-separation plants varying in design are known for commercial production of nitrogen, oxygen, and inert gases (See Hehum). 

In 1979 Bickley and Vishwanathan reported that N2 was oxidized in a series of experiments in which Ti02 was irradiated under air or a nitrogen oxygen mixture of unspecified composition. A similar effect was observed when Ti02 was irradiated under pure oxygen and subsequently exposed to N2. Products were thermally desorbed and analyzed by mass spectroscopy in conjunction with GLC [122], The putative catalyst was 99% pure commercially available rutile powder with water adsorbed on its surface prior to irradiation. The surface area of the powder was determined by krypton absorption at 78 K to be 13m2g 1. The experimental apparatus was not described. 

Principal gaseous products from fission and radioactive decay are xenon, krypton, and helium. Using the SCALE/ORIGEN program, the whole core inventories of these elements after 10 years of operation were estimated to be 217 g of xenon, 24 g of krypton, and 1 mg of helium. A considerable amount of these elements would be expected to be entrained in the foam. Consequently, a core clad breach due to pressurization is not credible, and consequences of clad mpture would be relatively insignificant as compared to a commercial power reactor. 

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