Organically Bound Tritium Analysis in Environmental Samples

Historical record of tritium from tree cores at the Savannah River Site

“…Typically, E-OBT bonds with O, N and S whereas NE-OBT bonds strongly with C. 4–8 The formation, behavior and persistence of OBT (as well as HTO) in the environment can be examined by chemically isolating these forms of OBT in materials. The definitions of OBT and HTO in living systems vary in the literature 6,9–12 but for this presentation, we will utilize OBT as NE-OBT, E-OBT and HTO as tissue-bound tritiated water. Furthermore, HTO + E-OBT + NE-OBT is equal to total T, but each T species is measured independently of the total T.…”

H-3 Measurement in Radioactive Wastes: Efficiency of the Pyrolysis Method to Extract Tritium from Aqueous Effluent, Oil, and Concrete

“…1-5. As Certified Reference Materials (CRM) are rather scarce for nuclear waste materials, our analysis have been validated through proficiency tests (Ref. 6) and with homemade materials (concrete, oil). For each matrix investigated, we tried to determine the recovery yields of tritium after pyrolysis.…”

A new bomb-combustion system for tritium extraction

“…Typically large sample sizes must be prepared in order to meet demanding limits of detection (LODs). This is particularly applicable to the assessment of organically bound tritium (OBT) [ 7 , 8 ] Nuclear decommissioning Representative analysis of certain organic-rich orphan wastes such as plastics, elastomeric materials and oils that are difficult to process by other extraction techniques Fusion reactor operations Analysis of 3 H contaminated soft wastes (e.g. gloves, coveralls, plastic sheeting, paper towel).…”