The Job (2)

A bit more about my job here.

Heavy water in CANDU reactors is irradiated as it does its job and tritiated water is produced - which is radioactive.  After a number of years the level of tritiated water in the coolant/moderator builds up and becomes a radiation uptake risk to workers.  This is particularly a problem when a major overhaul is planned.

Unit 1 has such a major overhaul coming up in around 2020/21 and so it was decided years ago to build a facility which would process the heavy water and remove the tritium component rendering the heavy water suitably unradioactive for another 20+ years. So, was born the Cernavoda Tritium Removal Facility (CTRF) which would do this.  The tritium can be recovered and used for military purposes should you so wish to do so.  It's easy to find on the internet what you use it for...

The CTRF project seems to have started in around 2006 but has been the subject of piss-poor planning and management by a number of stakeholders since then such that in 2013 we have not yet completed the conceptual design and now its urgent as it will take several years to complete the design, find a construction contractor, build it, and commission it all before the planned shutdown occurs.

Kinectrics has been involved as a technical design consultant/design house for some years based on their experience with tritium removal facilities in Canada and South Korea (where the technology works OK).  A Romanian company was the project manager...  In early 2013, CNE eventually figured out that there was a major problem here and asked Kinectrics to take the project management lead to get it designed and licensed.  So they sought an experienced PM who could handle such a long-running, complex project.  They couldn't find one but I decided to help them out.

We're about to get 'turned back on again' once we establish the safety and licensing requirements and agree them with the nuclear regulator, then the money will flow, the design will restart and I get to be a PM again.

I'll let you know how it goes...