Building a Tritium Facility Operating Experience Body of Knowledge to Support Commercial Fusion Power Plant Safety Case Development and Licensing

August 8, 2024

The production and use of tritium in fusion energy systems represents a potential radiological hazard requiring evaluation for ensuring adequate protection of workers, the public, and environment. Tritium is produced naturally in small quantities in the upper atmosphere via cosmic radiation interactions with nitrogen. Tritium is also present in nuclear and industrial facilities, both as a nuisance contaminant in the primary coolants of nuclear reactors and as a valued radioisotope used in lighting applications (e.g., emergency exit signs) and in medical diagnostics. Decades of tritium production and management for national defense have established a wealth of experience and documentation on the Savannah River Site. However, due to its association with national defense programs, the US commercial fusion industry and cognizant regulatory authorities have limited access to this knowledge base. This data is controlled under a classification program and difficult to access, especially for those in the private sector. A substantial element of this project is to invest in the effort required to extract this information and have it cleared for public release in the form of a publicly available EPRI technical report.  

The proposed work seeks to leverage experts at the DOE Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Tritium Facilities for the review, identify, collect, organize, and summarize historical tritium handling operating experience, lessons learned, and associated safety analysis information relevant in order to establish a Tritium Facility Operating Experience Body of Knowledge. This resource will be made publicly available and can serve as a starting point for a living, expandable knowledge base capturing relevant operating experience and lessons learned from private and public sector sources in the U.S. and internationally. It is anticipated that this work will also generate a standard template for soliciting and providing tritium operating experience data going forward.