AbstractA water detritiation facility, based on a world-wide adopted combined electrolysis catalytic exchange (CECE) process, for the JET active gas handling plant is described. A research and development programme is presented. The programme includes the testing of structured inert packing with an incorporated hydrophobic catalyst for increased throughput of a liquid phase catalytic exchange (LPCE) column, a vapour phase catalytic exchange (VPCE) process for reduction of tritium inventory in the alkali electrolyser and a column of high effectiveness for alkali retention.