Apparent enrichment of organically bound tritium in rivers explained by the heritage of our past

Eyrolle-Boyer, Frédérique; Boyer, Patrick; Claval, David; Charmasson, Sabine; Cossonnet, C.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.05.019

Cited by 33 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…This shift directly reflects the delayed transfer of terrestrial POM from the catchment to the river. This transfer time gap of POM (around one decade), from its production during the growth of terrestrial plants (photosynthesis) to its detrital export by rivers, is of the same order of magnitude as those evaluated by other authors throughout the French territory 5,9,35 . Interestingly, the symmetric shape of the OBT peak would suggest that POM in riverine sediments is a continuum of progressively decomposing organic compounds in soils as recently proposed by 36 for soil OM.…”

Section: New Findingssupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Nevertheless, any perturbation due to artificial inputs of tritium into the environment can alter this equilibrium since water masses are recycled faster than OM. These processes are assumed today to explain most OBT/HTO disequilibrium widely observed by several authors in various environmental compartments such as terrestrial plants 2–4 , aquatic plants 5,6 , soils 7,8 and river sediments collected far from the influence of releases from nuclear facilities 5,9 . Among other hypotheses such as isotopic fractionation or hypothesis dealing with tritium bioaccumulation 10 , current consensual explanation for OBT/HTO disequilibrium is that tritium integrated into the OM would persist for the long term while the free forms rapidly exchange with the surrounding environment 1 .…”

Section: What We Currently Know On Environmental Behavior Of Tritium mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though tritium is strongly mobile in the environment through its HTO form and rapidly disperses and dilutes within water masses, the OBT form is frequently found in some reservoirs where OM is preserved such as in soils 7,8 and in riverine, lacustrine or marine surface sediments 5,9,28,30 . Consequently, if such OBT storages exist, we can expect that biogeochemical processes in these reservoirs due to OM degradation would act as a delayed source of HTO and/or dissolved OBT for the atmosphere and hydrosphere.…”

Section: What We Currently Know On Environmental Behavior Of Tritium mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence for tritium persistence as organically bound forms in river sediments since the past nuclear weapon tests

Eyrolle

Copard

Lepage

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Tritium of artificial origin was initially introduced to the environment from the global atmospheric fallout after nuclear weapons tests. Its level was increased in rainwaters by a factor 1000 during peak emissions in 1963 within the whole northern hemisphere. Here we demonstrate that tritium from global atmospheric fallout stored in sedimentary reservoir for decades as organically bound forms in recalcitrant organic matter while tritium released by nuclear industries in rivers escape from such storages. Additionally, we highlight that organically bound tritium concentrations in riverine sediments culminate several years after peaking emission in the atmosphere due to the transit time of organic matter from soils to river systems. These results were acquired by measuring both free and bound forms of tritium in a 70 year old sedimentary archive cored in the Loire river basin (France). Such tritium storages, assumed to be formed at the global scale, as well as the decadal time lag of tritium contamination levels between atmosphere and river systems have never been demonstrated until now. Our results bring new lights on tritium persistence and dynamics within the environment and demonstrate that sedimentary reservoir constitute both tritium sinks and potential delayed sources of mobile and bioavailable tritium for freshwaters and living organisms decades after atmospheric contamination.

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Section: New Findingssupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: What We Currently Know On Environmental Behavior Of Tritium mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What We Currently Know On Environmental Behavior Of Tritium mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence for tritium persistence as organically bound forms in river sediments since the past nuclear weapon tests

Eyrolle

Copard

Lepage

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…Since then, tritium levels have greatly declined because of its relatively short half-life (12.3 years). However the concentration of organically bound tritium can often be higher than the concentration of water tritium due its longer residence time (Gontier and Siclet, 2011;Kim et al, 2012;Eyrolle-Boyer et al, 2014;Thompson et al, 2015). Models used to predict the fate and behavior of tritium in the environment often simplify processes linked to the formation and degradation of organically bound tritium.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrogen dynamics in soil organic matter as determined by <sup>13</sup>C and <sup>2</sup>H labeling experiments

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Understanding hydrogen dynamics in soil organic matter is important to predict the fate of 3 H in terrestrial environments. One way to determine hydrogen fate and to point out processes is to examine the isotopic signature of the element in soil. However, the non-exchangeable hydrogen isotopic signal in soil is complex and depends on the fate of organic compounds and microbial biosyntheses that incorporate water-derived hydrogen. To decipher this complex system and to understand the close link between hydrogen and carbon cycles, we followed labeled hydrogen and labeled carbon throughout near-natural soil incubations. We performed incubation experiments with three labeling conditions: 1 -13 C 2 H double-labeled molecules in the presence of 1 H 2 O; 2 -13 C-labeled molecules in the presence of 2 H 2 O; 3 -no molecule addition in the presence of 2 H 2 O. The preservation of substrate-derived hydrogen after 1 year of incubation (ca. 5 % in most cases) was lower than the preservation of substrate-derived carbon (30 % in average). We highlighted that 70 % of the C-H bonds are broken during the degradation of the molecule, which permits the exchange with water hydrogen. Added molecules are used more for trophic resources. The isotopic composition of the non-exchangeable hydrogen was mainly driven by the incorporation of water hydrogen during microbial biosynthesis. It is linearly correlated with the amount of carbon that is degraded in the soil. The quantitative incorporation of water hydrogen in bulk material and lipids demonstrates that nonexchangeable hydrogen exists in both organic and mineralbound forms. The proportion of the latter depends on soil type and minerals. This experiment quantified the processes affecting the isotopic composition of non-exchangeable hydrogen, and the results can be used to predict the fate of tritium in the ecosystem or the water deuterium signature in organic matter.

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“…La diminution observée de son activité au cours du temps, de 40 Bq/L en moyenne en 1980 à 8 Bq/L actuellement, est liée principalement à la baisse des rejets de Marcoule en 1997. Aujourd'hui, son activité dans le Rhône résulte principalement des rejets des centres nucléaires de production d'élec-tricité (CNPE) (Eyrolle-Boyer et al, 2013). Les activités en tritium du Rhône présentent une gamme de valeurs relativement faibles par rapport à celles observées pour les autres fleuves français sur lesquels sont implantés des CNPE.…”

Section: Prélèvements Et Analysesunclassified

Qualité radiologique des eaux filtrées du Rhône aval en vue de la production d’eau destinée à la consommation humaine

Eyrolle-Boyer¹,

Renaud²,

Claval³

et al. 2014

Radioprotection

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Résumé -Le code de la santé publique et notamment l'arrêté du 11 janvier 2007, relatif aux limites et références de qualité des eaux brutes et des eaux destinées à la consommation humaine, fixe quatre indicateurs de la qualité radiologique des eaux du robinet (l'activité α globale, l'activité β globale, l'activité du tritium et la dose totale indicative), ainsi que des valeurs guides et des références de qualité. Les chroniques issues de la surveillance des eaux filtrées du Rhône aval montrent que, si la radioactivité d'origine naturelle demeure bien évidemment constante au cours du temps, les niveaux de contamination radioactive d'origine artificielle ont fortement diminué à partir du début des années 90, de 10 à 100 fois suivant les radionucléides. Les données soulignent également qu'aucune des limites d'activités α globale, β globale et en tritium n'a été dépassée dans l'eau filtrée du Rhône aval au cours de l'ère industrielle nucléaire. Les doses totales indicatives (DTI) calculées à partir des prélèvements d'eau filtrée du Rhône aval (canal Philippe Lamour -Réseau hydraulique régional propriété de la région Languedoc Roussillon géré par BRL), de l'Orb et de l'Hérault effectués en 2011 sont très inférieures à la valeur de référence de 100 μSv/an. La contribution à la DTI des radionucléides artificiels détectés dans ces hydrosystèmes est en outre négligeable (<0,01 %).Abstract -Radiological quality Assessment of Rhône River filtered waters at its lower course in the framework of water production for human consumption with historical and regional perspectives. The public health code, including the Ministerial Decree of 11 June 2007, set four indicators to evaluate the radiological quality of drinking waters (α gross activity, β gross activity, tritium activity and total indicative dose), as well as guide values and quality references. All of the data from the monitoring show that while the radioactivity of the natural origin course remained constant over time, the levels of radioactive contamination of the Rhône from artificial sources declined sharply from the early 90s, i.e. 10 to 100 times following radionuclides. The data also emphasise that no threshold activities for α global, β global and tritium was exceeded in filtered water of the Rhône. The total indicative dose (TID) remained below 100 μSv/year. TID quantification from water samplings in 2011 in the downstream part of the Rhône River (BRL channel), Orb river and Hérault river are all far below the quality references. The contribution to the TID of artificial radionuclides detected in these water systems was shown to be negligible (<0.01%).

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Apparent enrichment of organically bound tritium in rivers explained by the heritage of our past

Cited by 33 publications

References 31 publications

Evidence for tritium persistence as organically bound forms in river sediments since the past nuclear weapon tests

Evidence for tritium persistence as organically bound forms in river sediments since the past nuclear weapon tests

Hydrogen dynamics in soil organic matter as determined by <sup>13</sup>C and <sup>2</sup>H labeling experiments

Qualité radiologique des eaux filtrées du Rhône aval en vue de la production d’eau destinée à la consommation humaine

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Apparent enrichment of organically bound tritium in rivers explained by the heritage of our past

Cited by 33 publications

References 31 publications

Evidence for tritium persistence as organically bound forms in river sediments since the past nuclear weapon tests

Evidence for tritium persistence as organically bound forms in river sediments since the past nuclear weapon tests

Hydrogen dynamics in soil organic matter as determined by &lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C and &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;H labeling experiments

Qualité radiologique des eaux filtrées du Rhône aval en vue de la production d’eau destinée à la consommation humaine

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Product

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Hydrogen dynamics in soil organic matter as determined by <sup>13</sup>C and <sup>2</sup>H labeling experiments