The design,development and operational characteristics of a 1 J,repetitively pulsed,line tunable TEA CO₂ laser producing nearly tail free short pulses (~170 ns)suitable for laser isotope separation is discussed. Tail free short laser pulses were generated by employing a nitrogen lean gaseous active medium. Use of an indigenously developed stable pulsed power supply,uniform and intense UV spark pre-ionization and optimum gas purging with catalytic regeneration to control the deleterious oxygen accumulation helps generate laser pulses with high energy stability.Integration of a sensitive arc detection system allows long termarc-free operation of the laser and protects it from catastrophic failure. Laser pulses in more than 90 lines in 10.6 µm and 9.6 µm bands of CO₂ laser spectrum with energy about 1 J in as many as 50 lines could be generated with a typical efficiency of about 4%. A typical pulse to pulse energy stability of ± 1.4% was obtained during one hour of continuous operation of the TEA CO₂ laser at 75 Hz.