Re: Tritium and plastic

[Keith Welch <welch@CEBAF.GOV>]

Mark,

Yes, tritium will diffuse through plastic.  Although I have never personally
been involved in actual cases of sample 'spoilage' from this, I think it's
the main reason glass containers are used when storing samples for tritium
analysis.  However, if you're taking samples and going to analyze them in a
reasonable time after sampling, I don't think there's any reason to be too
concerned about it.  I've heard that a shelf full of plastic sample
containers can wind up contaminated by one container with H3, but it would
seem to me that the specific activity would have to be pretty high, and the
containers would need to be in direct contact.  (anybody had a case of this
happening?)
The more realistic problem is that a sample with environmental levels of
tritium (say, 1000 pCi/l) could "loose" its activity over time, I think.

Keith Welch
welch@cebaf.gov
---------------------------------------------------

At 01:12 PM 1/24/97 -0600, you wrote:
>I remember a while back I asked a question
>regarding tritium permeating through protective
>clothing.  I have another question regarding
>tritium.  Can tritium permeate through plastic
>sample containers?  And if you were going to
>sample for tritium would you use glass or plastic
>sample jars?
>
>Mark P. Winslow
>US EPA - Region II
>
>ps.  This is concerning the "leak" at BNL.
>