Comparisons of facility-specific and generic component failure rates for tritium-bearing components used in fusion research

This paper compares the component failure rates for continuous operation and function-on-demand components that confine tritium, and provides recommendations on values to use for fusion applications. Since a tritium release to the environment can create a significant public hazard, the safety and reliability of tritium systems is very important for fusion research experiments and future power plants. Probabilistic safety assessment techniques are used to evaluate the safety of tritium handling. A foundation for meaningful probabilistic safety assessment is the application of accurate component failure rate data. The component failure rate values discussed here have been calculated and analyzed from fusion research facilities, the US Tritium Systems Test Assembly and Japanʹs Tritium Process Laboratory. The generic failure rate data compared in this paper were taken from published sources in US and Canada.