Re: Tritium Contamination

[mem6@juno.com (Milton E McLain)]

On Thu, 14 Aug 97 15:40:56 -0500 Keith McCartney <MCCAKA@doe-md.gov>
writes:
>Does anyone know of a way to analyze chips of concrete suspected of
>containing tritium contamination? We would like the ability to 
>determine the
>total activity contained within a sample.

Etc.

Probably the best way is to digest the concrete in a non-volatile mineral
acid (sulfuric acid) under full reflux, and then distill some of the
water for LSC.  If you know the original amount of water added as diluted
sulfuric acid, you will be able to back calculate from the LSC data to
get the total tritium in the digested concrete sample.


Milton McLain
mem6@juno.com