RE: Naturally-occurring Tritium

["Minnema, Douglas" <Douglas.Minnema@ns.doe.gov>]

Franz,

Perhaps you or someone else can answer a simple question for me regarding
this topic.  I have seen a few hydrogeological studies that claim to be able
to "date" ground water by the amount of tritium in it.  Is there really an
adequate understanding of tritium in the environment to support this?

Doug Minnema, Ph.D., CHP
Defense Programs, DOE
<Douglas.Minnema@ns.doe.gov>

what few thoughts i have are truly my own

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Franz Schoenhofer [SMTP:schoenho@via.at]
> Sent:	Tuesday, February 15, 2000 1:39 AM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	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:
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