• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.385-390
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• 2005

The effect of the Wolsong Tritium Removal Facility on the change of tritium concentration in the soil water was assessed by introducing a dynamic compartment model. For the mathematical modeling, the tritium in the environment was thought to come from two different sources. Three global tritium cycling models were compared with the natural background concentration. The dynamic compartment model was used to model the behavior of the tritium from the nuclear power plants at the Wolsong site. The source term for the dynamic compartment model was calculated with the dry and wet deposition rates. The area around the Wolsong nuclear power plants was represented by the compartments. The mechanisms considered in deriving the transfer coefficients between the compartments were evaporation, runoff, infiltration, hydrodynamic dispersion, and groundwater flow. We predicted what the change of the tritium concentration around the Wolsong nuclear power plants would be after future operation of the tritium removal facility to show the applicability of the model. The results showed that the operation of the tritium removal facility would reduce the tritium concentration in topsoil water quickly.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.239-245
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• 2003

Every nuclear power plant measured concentrations of tritium in groundwater and surface water around the plants periodically. It was not easy to predict the tritium concentration only with these measurement data in case of various release scenarios. KAERI developed a new approach to find the relationship between the tritium release rate and tritium concentration in the environment. The approach was based upon a dynamic compartment model. In this paper the dynamic compartment model was modified to predict the tritium behavior more accurately. The mechanisms considered for the transfer of tritium between the compartments were evaporation, groundwater flow, infiltration, runoff, and hydrodynamic dispersion. Time dependent source terms of the compartment model were introduced to refine the release scenarios. Also, transfer coefficients between the compartments were obtained using realistic geographical data. In order to illustrate the model various release scenarios were developed, and the change of tritium concentration in groundwater and surface water around the nuclear power plants was estimated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.242-249
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• 2002

The relationship between the tritium release rate from the nuclear power plant and tritium concentration in the environment around the Kori site was modeled. The tritium concentration in the atmosphere was calculated by multiplying the release rates and $\chi$/Q values, and the d3V deposition rate at each sector according to the direction and the distance was obtained using a dry deposition velocity. The area around Kori site was divided into 6 zones according to the deposition rate. The six zones were divided into 14 compartments for the numerical simulation. Transfer coefficients between the compartments were derived using site characterization data. Source terms were calculated from the dry deposition rates. Tritium concentration in surface soil water and groundwater was calculated based upon a compartment model. The semi-analytical solution of the compartment model was obtained with a computer program, AMBER. The results showed that most of tritium deposited onto the land released into the atmosphere and the sea. Also, the estimated concentration in the top soil agreed well to that measured. Using the model, tritium concentration was predicted in the case that the tritium release rates were doubled.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.484-490
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• 2003

The amount of the tritium released from Wolsong units during the WTRF operation is predicted. The profiles of tritium concentration in moderators and PHTs as variation of WTRF service allotment for each Wolsong unit are calculated, and the tritium releases are obtained from these tritium concentration profiles. The tritium concentration in moderator will be decreased down under 10 Ci/kg in 2013 and the yearly tritium release will be reduced below 25% of WTRF start year.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2003

The periodic safety review of operational nuclear power plants requires that the plants should keep a well organized environmental monitoring program. The past records of environment monitoring data were analyzed. and the tritium concentrations of the samples in the surface and ground water around Kori site were measured. It was shown that the tritium concentrations around the Kori site were slightly higher than that of natural background. The change of background tritium concentration was estimated through a numerical modeling. Two different versions of 7 compartments model - the world and the northern hemisphere - defined in NCRP-62 were modeled for the global tritium cycling. The numerical solution of the model was obtained using a computer program, AMBER. The four cases of tritium source-terms into the atmosphere were considered. The results showed that the tritium concentration in the surface soil water was higher than that in sea water or surface stream water. Also, it was shown that the tritium produced by the interaction between cosmic rays and the gases were the major source of tritium, and the tritium produced by nuclear weapon test decreased considerably.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.344-351
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• 2003

Hydrogeological survey and geochemical analysis were carried out in Phra Yun area, Northeast Thailand, which is a typical salt-affected area for an understanding of hydrogeological groundwater behaviours. Geological survey reveals the presence of G1 and F1 faults. Electromagnetic ground conductivity prospecting shows that the high conductivity zones of 15 mS/cm or more are distributed at underground of the G1 and F1 faults where saline groundwater is discharged. The distribution patterns of tritium concentration show that high tritium concentration zones of groundwater were recharged from pond and river. On the assumption that the annual average tritium concentration of precipitation in Northeast Thailand is same as tritium concentration of precipitation in Tokyo and groundwater flows as piston flow, the age of recharging precipitation of groundwater with 15 TU in 1997 could be estimated at 1967-1970 years. The velocity of groundwater flow was calculated to be $5.3{\times}10^{-7}\;m/s\;and\;2.1{\times}x10^{-6}\;m/s$ respectively from a duration time of 30 years and distance of groundwater flow 500m -2000m from the pond and river to the investigation wells. Because the estimated values of velocity of groundwater flow are compatible with the hydraulic conductivities, it is considered that 30 years is a reasonable period for recharging groundwater.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.184-189
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• 2009

In pressurized heavy water reactors, workers who enter radiation controlled areas must submit their urine samples to health physicists after radiation work; these samples are then used to monitor internal radiation exposure from tritium intake. This procedure assumes that the samples submitted represent tritium concentration inside the body at equilibrium. According to both technical reports from the International Commission on Radiological Protection and experimental results from Canadian nuclear utilities, tritium inside the body generally reaches equilibrium concentration after approximately 2-3 hours of intake. In practice, urine samples can be submitted either before the 2 hours mark or after several hours of radiation work because of the numerous tasks that workers must perform and their frequent entries during nuclear power plant maintenance. In this paper, tritium concentration in workers' urine samples was measured as a function of time submitted after radiation work. Based on the measurement results, changes in the tritium concentration inside the body and its effect on internal dose assessment were then analyzed. As a result, it was found that tritium concentration reaches equilibrium concentration before the 2 hours mark for most workers' urine samples.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.469-478
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• 2022

Tritium was extracted from tritium-contaminated aluminum samples by heating it in a high-temperature furnace at 200, 300, or 400 ℃ for 15 h. The extracted tritium was analyzed by using a liquid scintillation counter (LSC); the sample thicknesses were 0.4 and 2 mm. The differences in tritium extraction over time were also investigated by cutting aluminum stick samples into several pieces (1, 5, 10, and 15) with the same thickness, and subsequently heating them. The results revealed that there are most of the hydrated material based on tritium on the surface of aluminum. When the temperature was increased from 200 or 300 ℃-400 ℃, there are no large differences in the heating duration required for the radioactivity concentration to be lower than the MDA value. Additionally, at the same thickness, because the surface of aluminum is only contaminated to tritiated water, cutting the aluminum samples into several pieces (5, 10, and 15) did not have a substantial effect on the tritium extraction fraction at any of the applied heating temperatures (200, 300, or 400 ℃). The proportion of each tritium-release materials (aluminum hydrate based on tritium) were investigated via diverse analyses (LSC, XRD, and SEM-EDS).

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.267-276
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• 2015

Several analyses on tritium that is the largest release of gas or liquid radioactive waste from domestic PWR and PHWR NPPs were carried out, such as release comparison, directional frequency of wind and tritium behavior changes in environmental samples. First of all, analysis result showed that tritium released from PHWR was more than ten times as gas and double to three times as liquid in comparison to PWR in 2013. Independent release management in NPP units is needed to precisely control and analyze tritium, since there were 2 units of some NPPs having the same amount of release during analysis. In analysis on frequency of wind direction, average range showed 1.7 to 11.5% by 16-point compass. In case of analysis on sampling points by wind direction, Result showed most of the sampling points are right in places. However, There are some areas needed to examine. In analysis on tritium concentration changes in environmental samples, tritium concentration near NPPs was higher than one far away from NPPs. In case of environmental samples far from PWR, a trace of tritium occur. While, tritium concentration near NPPs was more than or equal to one further from PHWR. In conclusion, tritium occurs considerably in PHWR and is lower than standard in samples. but, it is still detected. Therefore, it is needed to strengthen control in system in NPPs and to consistently monitor tritium in environment.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2005

A dynamic compartment model was developed to appraise the level of the contamination of agricultural plants by accidentally released tritium from nuclear facility. The model consists of a set of inter-connected compartments representing atmosphere, soil and plant. In the model three categories of plant are considered: leafy vegetables, grain plants and tuber plants, of which each is modeled separately to account for the different transport pathways of tritium. The predictive accuracy of the model was tested through the analysis of the tritium exposure experiments for rice-plants. The predicted TFWT(tissue free water tritium) concentration of the rice ear at harvest was greatly affected by the absolute humidity of air, the ratio of root uptake, and the rate of rainfall, while its OBT(organically bound tritium) concentration the stowing period of the ear, the absolute humidity of air and the content of hydrogen in the organic phase. There was a good agreement between the model prediction and the experimental results lot the OBT concentration of the ear.