Production and characterization of radioactive waste at JET during tritium operations
The Joint European Torus (JET) at Culham Campus completed its final deuterium tritium campaigns DTE2 and DTE3 in 2021 and 2023 respectively. These extremely successful campaigns provided record-breaking fusion power results and also allowed UKAEA to demonstrate running a tokamak with expected fusion energy fuels gaining experience in minimising radioactive waste generation.
As part of the campaigns, UKAEA collected data from all of the potentially radioactive waste arisings that were generated during the tritium campaigns on JET and pauses between campaigns for maintenance or repairs. All data that is generated at Culham Science Centre is stored in the UKAEA’s Radioactive Waste database to allow suitable plans to be formulated for processing, characterisation and disposal of the waste and forecasting of future arisings based on historical data.
Between the start of DTE2 tritium operations in December 2020 (Campaign C39T) and the end in March 2022 (Campaign C40), total potential radioactive waste generated was 81,106kg of which 22,149kg was classified as “incinerable” and suitable for disposal via incineration, 50,717kg “non-incinerable” and 8,139kg waste liquid waste.
This paper will review the locations of radioactive waste arisings and how the total mass and tritium content compares to DTE1 including a review of the characterisation techniques used. The Materials Detritiation Facility (MDF) and its waste arisings as a function of processed material will also be discussed however this is related to the input waste rather than the JET campaign schedule.