A model for global cycling of tritium

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5246394

Killough, G G; Kocher, D C

Dynamic compartment models are widely used to describe global cycling of radionuclides for purposes of dose estimation. In this paper, we present a new global tritium model that reproduces environmental time-series data on concentrations in precipitation, ocean surface waters, and surface fresh waters in the northern hemisphere, concentrations of atmospheric tritium in the soutehrn hemisphere, and the latitude dependence of tritium in both hemispheres. Named TRICYCLE for Tritium CYCLE, the model is based on the global hydrologic cycle and includes hemisphereic stratospheric compartments, disaggregation of the troposphere and ocean surface waters into eight latitudezones, consideration of the different concentrations of atmospheric tritium over land and over the ocean, and a diffusive model for transport in the ocean. TRICYCLE reproduces the environmental data if we assume that about 50% of the tritium from atmospheric weapons testing was injected directly into the northern stratosphere as HTO. The models latitudinal disaggregation permits taking into account the distribution of population. For a unfiormaly distributed release of HTO into the worldwide troposphere, TRICYCLE predicts a collective dose commitment to the world population that exceeds the corresponding prediction by the NCRP model by about a factor of 3. 11 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Hendecagon Corp., Oak Ridge, TN (USA); Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5246394
• Report Number(s): CONF-880505-3; ON: DE88007477
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500300* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
COMPUTER CODES
DOSE EQUIVALENTS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FALLOUT
FORECASTING
GLOBAL ASPECTS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
T CODES
TRITIUM
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES