The Chalk River Tritium Extraction Plant has been built to remove tritium from AECL's heavy water to achieve a reduction in operator dose and emissions. A supplementary purpose of the plant is to demonstrate, in a full-scale environment, process technology developed by the laboratories. The tritium will be marketed, as will service detritiation for other owners of heavy water reactors. Previous papers have described the process and design of the plant. This paper updates these, in addition to information on construction, and some early commissioning activities.