Measurement of tritium in the free water of milk : spotting and quantifying some biases and proposing ways of improvement

Goff, P. Le; Duda, Jean-Marie; Guétat, Philippe; Rambaud, Pauline; Mavon, Christophe; Vichot, L.; Fromm, M.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2013.09.006

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

2014

DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2013.09.006

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Measurement of tritium in the free water of milk : spotting and quantifying some biases and proposing ways of improvement

P. Le Goff¹,

Jean-Marie Duda²,

Philippe Guétat³

et al.

Abstract: As one of the three natural isotopes of hydrogen, tritium is ubiquitous and may potentially be present in any water or organic molecule that constitutes a biological matrix. Milk is one of the most frequently monitored foodstuffs in the vicinity of chronic release of radionuclides, as it is a very common food product and also because it integrates deposition on large areas of grass or crops at a local scale. Different parameters have been studied to assess their impact on the reliability of tritium measurement… Show more

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Cited by 4 publications

References 22 publications

(18 reference statements)

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Isotopic fractionation of tritium in biological systems

Goff¹,

Fromm²,

Vichot³

et al. 2014

Environment International

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Isotopic fractionation of tritium is a highly relevant issue in radiation protection and requires certain radioecological considerations. Sound evaluation of this factor is indeed necessary to determine whether environmental compartments are enriched/depleted in tritium or if tritium is, on the contrary, isotopically well-distributed in a given system. The ubiquity of tritium and the standard analytical methods used to assay it may induce biases in both the measurement and the signification that is accorded to the so-called fractionation: based on an exhaustive review of the literature, we show how, sometimes large deviations may appear. It is shown that when comparing the non-exchangeable fraction of organically bound tritium (neOBT) to another fraction of tritium (e.g. tritiated water) the preparation of samples and the measurement of neOBT reported frequently led to underestimation of the ratio of tritium to hydrogen (T/H) in the non-exchangeable compartment by a factor of 5% to 50%. In the present study, corrections are proposed for most of the biological matrices studied so far. Nevertheless, the values of isotopic fractionation reported in the literature remain difficult to compare with each other, especially since the physical quantities and units often vary between authors. Some improvements are proposed to better define what should encompass the concepts of exchangeable and non-exchangeable fractions.

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Isotopic fractionation of tritium in biological systems

Goff¹,

Fromm²,

Vichot³

et al. 2014

Environment International

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Tritium levels in milk in the vicinity of chronic tritium releases

Goff

Guétat

Vichot

et al. 2016

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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Role of soil-to-leaf tritium transfer in controlling leaf tritium dynamics: Comparison of experimental garden and tritium-transfer model results

Ota

Kwamena

Mihok

et al. 2017

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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Environmental transfer models assume that organically-bound tritium (OBT) is formed directly from tissue-free water tritium (TFWT) in environmental compartments. Nevertheless, studies in the literature have shown that measured OBT/HTO ratios in environmental samples are variable and generally higher than expected. The importance of soil-to-leaf HTO transfer pathway in controlling the leaf tritium dynamics is not well understood. A model inter-comparison of two tritium transfer models (CTEM-CLASS-TT and SOLVEG-II) was carried out with measured environmental samples from an experimental garden plot set up next to a tritium-processing facility. The garden plot received one of three different irrigation treatments - no external irrigation, irrigation with low tritium water and irrigation with high tritium water. The contrast between the results obtained with the different irrigation treatments provided insights into the impact of soil-to-leaf HTO transfer on the leaf tritium dynamics. Concentrations of TFWT and OBT in the garden plots that were not irrigated or irrigated with low tritium water were variable, responding to the arrival of the HTO-plume from the tritium-processing facility. In contrast, for the plants irrigated with high tritium water, the TFWT concentration remained elevated during the entire experimental period due to a continuous source of high HTO in the soil. Calculated concentrations of OBT in the leaves showed an initial increase followed by quasi-equilibration with the TFWT concentration. In this quasi-equilibrium state, concentrations of OBT remained elevated and unchanged despite the arrivals of the plume. These results from the model inter-comparison demonstrate that soil-to-leaf HTO transfer significantly affects tritium dynamics in leaves and thereby OBT/HTO ratio in the leaf regardless of the atmospheric HTO concentration, only if there is elevated HTO concentrations in the soil. The results of this work indicate that assessment models should be refined to consider the importance of soil-to-leaf HTO transfer to ensure that dose estimates are accurate and conservative.

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Measurement of tritium in the free water of milk : spotting and quantifying some biases and proposing ways of improvement

Cited by 4 publications

References 22 publications

Isotopic fractionation of tritium in biological systems

Isotopic fractionation of tritium in biological systems

Tritium levels in milk in the vicinity of chronic tritium releases

Role of soil-to-leaf tritium transfer in controlling leaf tritium dynamics: Comparison of experimental garden and tritium-transfer model results

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