Re: Tritium in concrete

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@chello.at>]

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: DWhitfil@kdhe.state.ks.us <DWhitfil@kdhe.state.ks.us>
An: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Datum: Dienstag, 10. Oktober 2000 22:30
Betreff: Re: Tritium in concrete


>
>Franz's response sparked my curiosity and there is a discussion about
>cement and tritium retention in NCRP 62 on page 43 and 44. Table 5-1 gives
>leach test data for tritiated cements.

The kind of water leached will depend on the leaching agent. I do not expect
that crystal water can be easily leached, but would expect that the concrete
has to be heated to very high temperatures. Moisture water can be leached by
water. The water originally discussed sure is crystal water.

Using this data, the physical
>half-life, and assuming an initial concentration you probably can make a
>determination whether or not any tritium left would be detectable (just how
>much concrete would be needed to get enough tritium for analysis?)...
>
>Data is given for Portland Cement I, III, and lumnite. Work by Emelity
>(1973) and Colombo (1974, 75) is cited.
>
>
>Does anyone have any information about levels of tritium currently found in
>concrete, from buildings that were built around 1962-1963, but NOT those
>found in any nuclear facilities?  This period would have corresponded to
>significantly higher levels of atmospheric tritium from weapons fallout.
>Would it be feasible to expect that levels of tritium in concrete (from the
>water used in its manufacture), to be above clearance levels?


I would expect that elevated levels could be found. Levels of tritium in
precipitation were in the early sixties higher by orders of magnitude than
nowadays levels. I do not know about the clearance levels in the USA, but
the levels prevailing in the early sixties would still have been lower by
orders of magnitude than any clearance levels I can imagine.

Regards,

Franz




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