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Re: Tritium Weeping
At a previous institution, I observed tritium waste leeching through the sides of a 30 gal tight head poly drum. The was nothing special about these drums and they were purchased through a typical equipment supply catalogue. The tritium was in a matrix of aqueous liquid waste from biological labs. Routine monthly contamination surveys were performed on the sides the drums. Tritium contamination appeared on the outside of the drums between 5 and 7 months after the drums were placed in storage. I assumed the time difference was due to the tritium concentration in the drum, but this is only a guess. Other factors to migration time could be pH, molecular binding properties within the matix, temperature, etc. But, again, we ran no experments to confirm any of this.
Once we observed the contamination, we put the poly drums within 55 gal steel drums and saw no migration prior to shipment for processing and final disposal. We then changed to 30 gal poly lined steel drums and saw no tritium migration through the exterior prior to shipment for processing and final disposal. Again, these 30 gal metal drums were nothing special, purchased as reconditioned from a cooper in the area. The holding time per metal 30 gal drum before shipment was between 3 and 15 months, depending on the volume of waste generated by the researchers.
Regards,
Vince Chase
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information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html