A Description of the Tritium Facility at the Chalk River Laboratories

Abstract

AECL’s Tritium Facility is located at its Chalk River Laboratories (CRL). The Tritium Facility was originally built to support the tritium technology needs for CANDU reactors and Canadian fusion program. The Tritium Facility commenced its operation in 1979. Since its inception, it has been involved in the development of heavy water detritiation and upgrading processes, development and testing of tritium-breeder materials and design and testing of fusion-fuel cleanup systems for fusion reactor applications, investigation of tritium-materials interactions, tritium storage getters etc. The Tritium Facility also contributed to the design, construction and commissioning activities of the Combined Electrolysis and Catalytic Exchange Upgrading and Detritiation (CECE-UD) Facility at CRL and the Wolsong Tritium Removal Facility (WTRF) in Korea.