[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Naturally-occurring Tritium



At 16:41 14.02.2000 -0600, you wrote:
>Anyone have a figure and reference for the average concentration of trtium
in the earth's water?  Thanks!
>

The tritium concentration depends on the origin of water. Deep water
sources may even have zero tritium, groundwater concentrations depend on
the geohydrological conditions. When there is a fast turnover (like in
karstic areas) the concentration will reflect the tritium concentration of
precipitation, which may vary. Water sources from glaciers show higher
concentrations because tritium from the atmospheric bomb tests still is
trapped in the ice. The current concentration of tritium in drinking water,
precipitation and surface water in Austria is in the range of 2 Bq/l.
Exceptions are, when sometimes at some sampling stations for precipitation
values of appr. 20 Bq/l are found or in one river clearly rising tritium
concentrations were found after a nuclear power plant went into operation
in a neighbour country.....

The tritium concentrations in the Northern Hemisphere are higher than the
corresponding values in the Southern Hemisphere.

For sea water I can cite the results from the Mururoa Study as an example.
In seawater off the atolls in French Polynesia at the surface values of
approximately 100 mBq/l were found, the deeper the water was taken from the
smaller the concentration became and it is in 1000 m depth a few mBq/l only. 

If you are interested in more details, please contact me privately. We have
done a lot of tritium measurements in Austria on precipitation, ground
water and river water.

Regards,

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at


Office:
Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery), VI/8
Radetzkystr. 2
A-1031 Vienna
AUSTRIA

phone: -43-1-71172-4458
fax: -43-1-7122331

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html