Proportional Counting Techniques for Routine Tritium Analyses at Environmental Levels

摘要

Techniques and procedures were developed to routinely analyze samples for tritium as part of research and monitoring programs on the transport of radionuclides released from the Savannah River Plant site. Because tritium concentrations in the environment are low, trace analysis methods were developed. The primary analysis technique involves converting aqueous samples to hydrogen gas which is mixed with propane and assayed in proportional counters. Counter background is reduced by massive shielding, anticoincidence gating with plastic scintillators, and pulse shape discrimination. The overall sensitivity for tritium is 0.02 pCi/g of water with a demonstrated precision of 6.3% at 1 pCi/g of water. (ERA citation 06:012820)