Measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water by azeotropic distillation

Pourimani, Reza; Zare, Mohammad Reza; Aghamohammadi, Mehrdad

doi:10.22034/rpe.2023.379666.1113

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

¹ Department of Physics‎, ‎Faculty of Science‎, ‎Arak University‎, ‎Arak‎, ‎Iran

² Department of Physics‎, ‎Faculty of Science‎, ‎University of Isfahan‎, ‎Isfahan‎, ‎Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/rpe.2023.379666.1113

Abstract

In this work, the concentration of tritium in D₂O of various degrees of purity was measured. Samples were taken from the Arak heavy water plant and tritium concentrations were determined using a liquid scintillation detector (LSC) based on tritium decay. In this work, instead of simple distillation, is used the azeotropic distillation method. Absorption and fluorescence spectra were recorded using a Shimadzu UV-2100 spectrometer and an LS50B fluorescence spectrometer. The tritium concentration in the samples varied from 1.75 ± 0.80 to 6.16 ± 1.01 Bq.L^-1 in D₂O enrichment from 0.35% to 77.50%. The correlation coefficient between tritium concentration and D₂O purity in heavy water was obtained as R² = 0.853. Deviation for 99.8% D₂O enriched in heavy water. This was observed from a straight line, leading to a drop in R². The results of this measurement showed that the tritium concentration did not exceed the value set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Highlights

Measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water by azeotropic distillation for the first time in Iran.
Comparison of the results with the NRC.
Examining the changes in tritium concentration with increasing degree of enrichment of heavy water.
Drowning regression line for tritium concentration in heavy water purity

Keywords

20.1001.1.26456397.2023.4.3.4.2

References

ASTM, D. (1978). 2654-76, Annual Book of ASTM Standards. Britannica, T. (2020). Editors of encyclopaedia. Argon. Encyclopedia Britannica.

Carsten, A. (1979). Tritium in the environment. In Advances in Radiation Biology, volume 8, pages 419–458. Elsevier. Chemistry (2023). Principle of chemistry/ elements available from https://www.malecki.chemia.us.edu.pl/pierwiastki/powietrze-woda/wodor/.

Council, N. R. et al. (2006). Health risks from exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation: BEIR VII phase 2.

Dyadin, Y. V., Kukavadze, G., and Memelova, L. Y. (1979). Measurement of tritium concentration in a heavy water reactor. Atomnaya Ehnergiya, 47(5):321–323.

EMSL, E. (1980). Method 900.0: Gross Alpha and Gross Beta Radioactivity in Drinking Water. Prescribed procedures for measurement of radioactivity in drinking water. Technical report, EPA/600/4/80/032.

Fireman, E., DeFelice, J., and Tilles, D. (1961). Solar flare tritium in a recovered satellite. Physical Review, 123(6):1935.

Glasstone, S. and Sesonske, A. (1981). Nuclear Reactor Engineering, Chap. 3.

Hilmen, E.-K. (2000). Separation of azeotropic mixtures: tools for analysis and studies on batch distillation operation.

IAEA (2023). Tritium in the physical and biological science https://www.iaea.org.

Lucas, L. L. and Unterweger, M. P. (2000). Comprehensive review and critical evaluation of the half-life of tritium. Journal of research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 105(4):541.

Makhijani, A. (2008). The use of reference man in radiation protection standards and guidance with recommendations for change. Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

Takoma Park, MD. Moghissi, A., Bretthauer, E., and Compton, E. (1973). Separation of water from biological and environmental samples for tritium analysis. Analytical Chemistry, 45(8):1565–1566.

Nir, A., Kruger, S., Lingenfelter, R., and Flamm, E. (1966). Natural tritium. Reviews of Geophysics, 4(4):441–456.

NRC (2023). Radioactive Effluent and Environmental Reports. http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/opsexperience/tritium/plant-info.html.

Peterson Jr, H. T. and Baker, D. A. (1985). Tritium production, releases and population doses at nuclear power reactors. Fusion Technology, 8(2P2):2544–2550.

Phillips, T., Berman, B., and Seagrave, J. (1980). Neutron total cross section for tritium. Physical Review C, 22(2):384.

Rand, M., Greenberg, A. E., Taras, M. J., et al. (1976). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. Prepared and published jointly by American Public Health Association.

Sodd, V. J. and Scholz, K. L. (1969). Analysis of tritium in water: a collaborative study. Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists, 52(1):90–93.

Thompson, R. C., Ballou, J. E., et al. (1954). Studies of metabolic turnover with tritium as a tracer. 4. Metabolically inert lipide and protein fractions from the rat. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 208:883–888.

Radiation Physics and Engineering

Measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water by azeotropic distillation

References

References

Volume 4, Issue 3
June 2023
Pages 23-27

Measurement of tritium concentration in heavy water by azeotropic distillation

References

References

Volume 4, Issue 3June 2023Pages 23-27

Volume 4, Issue 3
June 2023
Pages 23-27