Total tritium measurement in atmosphere
- CeSNEF--Istituto di Ingegneria Nucleare, Polytechnic of Milan (Italy)
Measurement of tritium in the atmosphere is of strong interest wherever this radionuclide is used. Therefore, a method is proposed for the joint measurement of burnable tritium, independently from its physico-chemical form, and of tritiated water. The method consists of transforming the tritiated molecules of the gases present in the air volume into tritiated water by burning them together with a known quantity of hydrogen. The water vapor is condensed and added to a liquid scintillator. The scintillator is also able to dissolve conventional filters so that the tritium attached to particulate and concentrated on these filters can be jointly measured, as will be discussed in a future report. The overall detection limit of the method is approximately 64 Bq m-3 for a combustion period of 10 min (which corresponds to sampling an air volume of 15 L) and a counting period of 10 min. This limit, much lower than the derived air concentrations in the most unfavorable cases, allows the application of the method for safety purposes. Moreover, the method can be integrated into a general procedure for the measurement of tritium in different chemical forms, to be applied in case of necessity.
- OSTI ID:
- 5327957
- Journal Information:
- Health Physics; (United States), Journal Name: Health Physics; (United States) Vol. 61:1; ISSN 0017-9078; ISSN HLTPA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
540130* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AIR POLLUTION
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
FLUIDS
GASES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MEASURING METHODS
MONITORING
POLLUTION
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
SCINTILLATION COUNTING
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
VAPORS
WATER VAPOR