Re: Tritium stratification

["David Bromwich" <davidb@plato.ens.gu.edu.au>]

I worked at Flinders University (South Auatralia) in 1974 in their
Earth Sciences Department.  There was some work being done on the
Blue Lake at Mount Gambier, using tritium dating of the different
aquifers feeding the lake. Dr Graham Alsison of the CSIRO had the
tritiujm measuring facility at what was the Waite Institute. I think
they were measuring the water at diffrent levels with Kuntz bottles
(they open at both ends at a predetermined depth and grab a sample.
You would find refrence to this sort of work in the Hydrology
journals.

If there is a sufficient (I dont know waht would be sufficient)
temperature or other gradient in your pond allowing separation of
levels, then I guess you would find a tritium gradient, and the rain
water being fresh, the diffrences should be a lot more measureable
than old aquifers. My 2c.

> Date:          Wed, 21 Feb 96 14:17:37 -0600
> Reply-to:      radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> From:          Gary Schroeder <schroede@mail.sep.bnl.gov>
> To:            Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Subject:       Tritium stratification

> Does anyone know if it's possible for tritiated water to "stratify" if kept
> in a large pond which accepts ordinary rainwater?  We're talking about a
> total pond depth of approximately 7 ft. (pond is stagnant, artificial, and
> lined with plastic).  Everything tells me that the concentrations of tritium
> as sampled at any location within the pond should be completely homogeneous,
> but I have data which suggests otherwise.  Please e-mail directly with any
> insights you may have.
> ===============
> Gary L. Schroeder
> Brookhaven National Laboratory
> schroede@mail.sep.bnl.gov
> 
> 

David Bromwich, CIH           D.Bromwich@ens.gu.edu.au
Lecturer, Occupational Hygiene     tel (+617) 38757487
Faculty of Environmental Sciences  fax (+617) 38757459
Griffith University, Nathan Q 4111 AUSTRALIA
http://plato.ens.gu.edu.au/hygiene/db.htm