Operating Experience of the Tritium Laboratory at CRL

The Chalk River Laboratories Tritium Laboratory has been operating safely and reliably for over 20 years. Safe operations are achieved through proper management, supervision, training and using approved operating procedures and techniques. Reliability is achieved through appropriate equipment selection, routine equipment surveillance testing and routine preventative maintenance. This paper summarizes the laboratory's standard operating protocols and formal compliance programs followed to ensure safe operations. The paper will also review the general set-up of the laboratory and will focus on the experience gained with the operation of various types of equipment such as tritium monitors, tritium analyzers, pumps, purification systems and other systems used in the laboratory during its 20 years of operation.