Tritium Analysis at TFTR

The tritium analytical system at TFTR is used to determine the purity of tritium bearing gas streams in order to provide inventory and accountability measurements. The system includes a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) and beta scintillator originally configured at Monsanto Mound Research Laboratory. The system was commissioned and tested in 1992 and is used daily for analysis of calibration standards, incoming tritium shipments, gases evolved from uranium storage beds and effluent gases from the tokamak. The instruments are controlled by a personal computer with customized software written with a graphical programming system designed for data acquisition and control. A discussion of the instrumentation, control systems, system parameters, procedural methods, algorithms, and operational issues will be presented. Measurements of gas holding tanks and tritiated water waste streams using ion chamber instrumentation are discussed elsewhere.^1,2