Brief Update

These last few weeks have been intense!

I have spent the last two years assisting the group leader and his team with getting the Active Gas Handling System (AGHS) ready for the next big fusion experiment; DTE2.

DTE2 will be the second, high power, fusion experiment with a deuterium-tritium (D-T) mixture in the Joint European Torus (JET) magnetic confinement device; addressing essential operational, technical, diagnostics and scientific issues in support of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). The AGHS is a processing system separate from the main JET reactor, supplying JET with tritium to run the experiment, while also removing exhaust gases from the reactor to recover tritium before exhausting.

The last month we have been working to complete a milestone to expand the tritium boundary, showing readiness of the subsystems needed for for the JET experiments with tritium. I have coordinated between all team members and the chief engineer to gain acceptance that these subsystems are suitable to operate, while anticipating any risks to plant, personnel, or schedule. This has demanded long hours and a lot of meetings over this period – no time to write blogs!

Within this period I also applied for an internal post, and I am happy to say I have been accepted and will be moving into the Office of the Chief Engineer as an Improvement Engineer!

I have two weeks of leave, which I hope to read more (fiction and technical), watch some webinars, write a couple of blogs, and DIY and general housework, before moving into my new role.

I am excited to move across, I hope this is the right way to go for me. I also look forward to seeing the tritium and DT experiments for JET, and hope they are successful!