Tritium removal facilities are only likely to be an issue when CANDU plants have matured and the increasing tritium levels in the water have become intolerable from a personnel health physics perspective. Even then some station owners claim that a Tritium removal facility is unnecessary, because improved health physics performance and practices is all that is required to protect against possible personnel exposure. To support this argument it is also true to say that the tritium accumulation does stabilize, and will reach a stage where the tritium content will no longer increase. However for station owners that support the view that they follow an ALARA principle in which only the lowest level achievable is acceptable, a tritium extraction plant when the plant is new or one built later when the plant is operating and in mid life, both have arguments to support the expense. For a CANDU reactor in mid-life, there are two options for siting the Tritium Removal Facility (TRF). 1. Stationary Option which will require permanent structures for each station. 2. Mobile Option which considers a complete TRF that can be moved from station to station In most existing CANDU-6 stations, no provisions have been made to construct and operate a TRF. This would make the Stationary Option costly because space would have to be provided and newly added infrastructure would have to be installed. With appropriate seismic qualification and following the necessary codes and standards, a Mobile TRF unit could be more cost effective, particularly if there were a possibility to share the unit with other stations in like position.
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