Upgrade to the Tritium Remote Control and Monitoring System for TFTR D&D
Authors: P. Sichta, G. Oliaro, and S. Sengupta
Date of PPPL Report: January 2002
Presented at: the IEEE/NPSS Symposium on Fusion Engineering in Atlantic City, NJ, January 21-25, 2002.
Since 1988, the Tritium Remote Control and Monitoring System (TRECAMS) has performed crucial functions in support of D-T [deutrium-tritium] operations of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). Although plasma operations on TFTR were completed in 1997, the need for TRECAMS continued. During this period TRECAMS supported the TFTR tritium systems, the TFTR's Shutdown and Safing phase, and the TFTR Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) project. The most critical function of the TRECAMS in the post-TFTR era has been to provide a real-time indication of the airborne tritium levels in the tritium areas and the (HVAC) stacks. TRECAMS is a critical tool in conducting safe TFTR D&D tritium-line breaks and other tritium-related work activities. Beginning in 1998, the failure rate of the system's hardware sharply increased. Furthermore, the specialized knowledge required to maintain the original software and hardware was diminishing. It soon became apparent that a failure of the TRECAMS could significantly impact the TFTR D&D project's cost and schedule. To preclude this, the TRECAMS hardware and software was upgraded in the year 2000 to use modern components. This paper will describe that successful upgrade, including a review of the engineering processes and our operating experiences with the upgraded system.