Tritium fuel cycle technology at the Tritium Systems Test Assembly

The Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) at Los Alamos is charged with developing the tritium technology required to fuel a fusion reactor. A second major task is the development and evaluation of personnel and environmental protection systems associated with the tritium handling facilities at a fusion reactor. Tritium experiments were initiated in June 1984 when 10 g of tritium was introduced into the cryogenic distillation isotope separation system. In September 1986 the tritium inventory was increased to 50 g, the fuel cleanup system was used to remove impurities from the gas and extremely pure (>99.9%) tritium was prepared in the isotope separation system. The success of the TSTA operation is demonstrated by the fact that from June 1984 through September 1986 more than 5 x 108 Ci of tritium have been processed at TSTA. During this period less than 15 Ci of tritium have been released to the environment. Personnel exposures during this time have totaled less than 100 person-mRem. Experiments performed during this period include the tests on the isotope separation and fuel cleanup system; tests to study the contamination and decontamination of surfaces exposed to elemental tritium and tritium oxide; evaluation of a commercial getter for glovebox atmosphere detritiation tritium testing on a palladium alloy membrane diffuser; and evaluation of a ceramic electrolysis cell for decomposing tritiated water. The latter two experiments are being done in cooperation with the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute