Successful Experimental Verification of the Tokamak Exhaust Processing Concept of ITER with the CAPER Facility

One of the design targets for the Tokamak Exhaust Processing (TEP) system of ITER is not to lose more than 10^-5gh^-1 into the Normal Vent Detritiation system of the Tritium Plant. The plasma exhaust gas therefore needs to be processed in a way that a tritium removal efficiency of about 10⁸ with respect to the flow rate is achieved. Expressed in terms of tritium concentrations this corresponds to a decontamination from about 130 gm^-3 down to about 10^-4 gm^-3 (about 1 Cim^-3 = 3.7*10¹⁰ Bqm^-3). The three step reference process for the TEP system of ITER is called CAPER and has been developed and realized at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK). After the successful commissioning of the PERMCAT reactor as the key component of the third step detailed parametric tritium testing of the 3 steps involving the processing of more than 300 g tritium has been carried out and decontamination factors beyond the design requirements have been demonstrated for each process step and for the process as a whole. Not only the decontamination factor of 10⁸ as required by ITER, but also the operational mode of TEP as a waste dump for gases from diverse sources has been experimentally validated with the CAPER facility.