Abstract

ABSTRACT The TFTR tritium operations staff has successfully received, stored, handled, and processed over five hundred thousand curies of tritium for the purpose of supporting D-T (Deuterium-Tritium) operations at TFTR. Tritium operations personnel nominally provide continuous round the clock coverage (24 hours/day, 7 days/week) in shift complements consisting of I supervisor and 3 operators. Tritium Shift Supervisors and operators are required to have 5 years of operational experience in either the nuclear or chemical industry and to become certified for their positions. The certification program provides formal instruction, as well as on the job training. The certification process requires 4 to 6 months to complete, which includes an oral board lasting up to 4 hours at which time the candidate is tested on their knowledge of Tritium Technology and TFTR Tritium systems. Once an operator is certified, the training process continues with scheduled training weeks occurring once every 5 weeks. During D-T operations at TFTR die operators must evacuate the tritium area due to direct radiation from TFTR D-T pulses. During this time operators maintain cognizance over tritium systems via a real time TV camera system. Operators are able to gain access to the Tritium area between TFTR D-T pulses, but have been excluded from the tritium area during D-T pulsing for periods up to 30 minutes. Tritium operators are responsible for delivering tritium gas to TFTR as well as processing plasma exhaust gases which lead to the deposition of tritium oxide on disposable molecular sieve beds (DMSB). Once a DMSB is loaded, the operations staff remove the expended DMSB, and replace it with a new DMSB container. The TFTR tritium system is operated via detailed procedures which require operator sign off for system manipulation. There are >300 procedures controlling the operation of che tritium systems. In addition detailed procedures are employed to maintain configuration control over the tritium facility. All maintenance activities in the tritium area awe controlled via a work permit system which requires oat the Tritium Shift Supervisor sign the permit aid be cognizant of work in the area. All manipulation of tritium systems during maintenance activities are performed under the direct supervision of the Train Shift Supervisor.