Development of Tritium Sensors for Enabling Low-Carbon Technologies for FUSION (DETECT - FUSION)

Objectives of the Project: the overarching goal of this project is to develop a tritium area sensor that can detect and pinpoint concentrations of tritium over large areas. The specific objectives of this project are to develop and fabricate sensor samples and demonstrate a proof of concept.

Description of the Project: An important aspect to ensure the safety of nuclear fusion power plants is the prompt and accurate detection of any possible tritium leakages, which can pose serious health risks due to the ionizing radiation emitted during its decay. However, common detection methods such as a liquid scintillation counter or an ion chamber cannot be performed in real time, and more importantly, cannot pinpoint the exact location of a tritium leak. Compared to many traditional sensors, optical sensors have significant advantages due to their immunity to electromagnetic noise, flexible deployment, inexpensive nature, and opportunities for distributed sensing. This work aims to leverage these advantages to create a tritium area sensor that can be deployed to detect and pinpoint tritium leaks over large areas. The approach used in this project consists of making sample sensors and testing them for their individual roles in the tritium sensing approach. Subsequentially, the sensing system is combined to provide a proof of concept of the technique.

Potential impact of the project: this project will pave the way to a sensing approach that can obtain information on presence and location of tritium gas over large areas, such as various locations in a fusion reactor that will employ processes involving tritium (breeding, separation, recycling, etc.). This is a task that cannot be performed with current technology and would provide a significant enhancement of process monitoring and control, as well as safety, of a D-T based fusion reactor.