• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.11-39
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• 2018

Tritium and $^{14}C$ are two most important radionuclides released from nuclear facilities to the environment, and $^{14}C$ contributes dominant radiation dose to the population around nuclear power plants. This paper presents an overview of the production, pathway, species and levels of tritium and $^{14}C$ in nuclear facilities, mainly nuclear power plants. The methods for sampling and collection of different species of tritium and $^{14}C$ in the discharge gas from the stack in the nuclear facilities, atmosphere of the nuclear facilities and environment are presented, and the features of different methods are reviewed. The on-line monitoring methods of gaseous tritium and $^{14}C$ in air and laboratory measurement methods for sensitive determination of tritium and $^{14}C$ in collected samples, water and environmental solid samples are also discussed in detailed. Meanwhile, the challenges in the determination and speciation analysis of tritium and $^{14}C$ are also highlighted.

• 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 Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.96-107
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• 1991

At the design stage of a plant, the plausible causes and pathways of release of hazardous materials are not clearly known. Thus there exist large amount of uncertainties on the consequences resulting from the operation of a fusion plant. In order to better handle such uncertain circumstances, we utilize the Probabilistic Risk Assessment(PRA) for the safety analyses on fusion power plant. In this paper, we concentrate on the tritium release accident. We develop a simple model that describes the process and flow of tritium, by which we figure out the locations of tritium inventory and their vulnerability. We construct event tree models that lead to various levels of tritium release from abnormal initiating events. Branch parameters on the event tree are assessed from the fault tree analysis. Based on the event tree models we construct influence diagram models which are more useful for the parameter updating and analysis. We briefly discuss the parameter updating scheme, and finally develop the methodology to obtain the predictive distribution of consequences resulting from the operating a fusion power plant. We also discuss the way to utilize the results of testing on sub-systems to reduce the uncertain ties on over all system.

• 대한방사선방어학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.200-201
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• 2010

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.251-262
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• 2004

It is for the purpose of investigating the tritium distribution in the leachates, the raw and treated leachates and the condensates of the methane gas, which have occurred from domestic solid waste landfills. Also it aims to measure the tritium distribution level on the colloid size of the leachates, the raw and treated leachates. It was found that the major inorganic contaminants of the leachates were Na, K, Ca, Mg, $NH{_4}^+$-N and $Cl^-$. The mean tritium level of the raw leachates of the investigated 13 landfill sites for 6 months was 17 ~ 1196 TU. It corresponded to a several scores or hundreds of magnitude higher value than that of the normal environmental sample level except for two landfill sites. Also such a high concentration of the tritium was found in the treated leachates and methane gas condensates as well. Nevertheless it is important to emphasize that the tritium level which was found in this research is about 100 times lower than the tritium limit for the drinking water quality. And most of the tritium existed in the dissolved colloid of the leachate of which the colloid size is below $0.45{\mu}m$. Also, according to the tritium analysis results of the leachates after filtration with $0.45{\mu}m$ membrane filter for some landfills, it is likely that some tritium of the leachate would be distributed in a colloid size over $0.45{\mu}m$. In general the relationship between the tritium and other contaminants in the raw leachate was low, but it was relatively high between the tritium and TOC. However, the tritium content in the leachate had no meaningful relationship with the scale, hydrological characteristics and age of the landfill.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

China's rapid economic growth has resulted in significant environmental side effects. Therefore, China has been interested in reducing her dependence on foreign oil and gas by developing technologies needed for hydrogen, in addition to her increasing energy mix of nuclear and renewable energy form, such as solar and wind power. There are three isotopes of hydrogen, i.e. protium (P or H), deuterium (D), and tritium (T). Both deuterium and tritium are important materials in nuclear fuel cycle industry. Tritium is one of the critical radioactive nuclides. Planning for and implementing contamination control as a part of normal operation and maintenance activities is an important function in any hydrogen facility, especially tritium facility. The development of hydrogen isotopes analysis is the key issues in this area. Mass spectrometry (MS) with medium (about 600) and high resolution (> 1,400) is commercially available; however, the routine analysis of hydrogen isotopes is done with low-resolution MS (< 200) in China. This paper summarizes the progress of MS measurement technology for hydrogen isotope abundance in China, focusing on our lab's research program and technical status. An analyzing method has been introduced for accurate measurement of tritium abundance in the H.D.T system by low resolution MAT-253 MS. The quotient of compression ratio coefficient is determined by building up equipment for laboratory-scale preparation of secondary standard gases and by considering the difference in sensitivity between hydrogen isotopes. The results show that the measured value is reproducible within the relative error range of 0.8% for gas samples of different tritium abundance.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.419-423
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• 2007

Environmental low level tritium analysis was studied using liquid scintillation counter(LSC) and electrolytic enrichment method. To obtain low level blank count, various counting vials were investigated. Among them, teflon coated PE vial had a lower blank count rate (1.86 cpm) and we obtained 2.01 Bq/L detection and tritium separation factor was above 20. LSC counting efficiency obtained $28.70{\pm}0.27%$ using the NIST tritium standard water sample.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2564-2569
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• 2021

The neutronic analysis of Helium Cooled Ceramic Reflector (HCCR) breeding blankets has been performed using the 3D Monte Carlo code MCNPX and ENDF nuclear data library. This study aims to reduce ⁶Li percentage in the breeder zones as much as possible ensuring tritium self-sufficiency. This work is devoted to investigating the effect of ⁶Li percentage on the HCCR breeding blanket's neutronic parameters, such as neutron flux and spectrum, Tritium Breeding Ratio (TBR), nuclear power density, and energy multiplication factor. In the ceramic breeders at the saturated thickness, increasing the enrichment of ⁶Li reduces its share in the tritium production. Therefore, ceramic breeders typically use lower enriched Li from 30% to 60%. The investigation of neutronic analysis in the suggested geometry shows that using 60% ⁶Li in Li₂TiO₃ can yield acceptable TBR and energy deposition results, which would be economically feasible.

• 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.