• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.45-54
• /
• 2005

A dynamic compartment model was developed to appraise the level of the contamination of agricultural plants by accidentally released tritium from nuclear facility. The model consists of a set of inter-connected compartments representing atmosphere, soil and plant. In the model three categories of plant are considered: leafy vegetables, grain plants and tuber plants, of which each is modeled separately to account for the different transport pathways of tritium. The predictive accuracy of the model was tested through the analysis of the tritium exposure experiments for rice-plants. The predicted TFWT(tissue free water tritium) concentration of the rice ear at harvest was greatly affected by the absolute humidity of air, the ratio of root uptake, and the rate of rainfall, while its OBT(organically bound tritium) concentration the stowing period of the ear, the absolute humidity of air and the content of hydrogen in the organic phase. There was a good agreement between the model prediction and the experimental results lot the OBT concentration of the ear.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.431-435
• /
• 2003

Because the Tissue Bound Tritium of food irradiates the organic tissues of a man during a longer time than the Tissue Free Water Tritium, we found the ratio of labile and bound hydrogen, which is the direct source of TBT concentration, in grain such as rice and barley. Tissue free water was extracted from rice and barley sampled, adjacent to Wolsung nuclear power plants of CANDU type, by freeze-drying. Tissue bound water was taken from some of the dried samples by high-pressure combustion. The other of the samples was washed by tritium-free water for 2-3 hours, and dried again by freeze-drying. Tissue bound water was taken again from some of the second dried samples by the combustion. The extracted tissue free and bound waters were distilled and TFWT and TBT concentrations of them were counted by a liquid scintillation counter. Through alternating washing, drying and combustion until the concentration of TBT would be constant, the tritium concentration existing as bound hydrogen was found. The ratios of labile and bound hydrogen of rice and barley were determined by TR concentration, initial TBT concentration and bound tritium concentration. The ratios of bound hydrogen of rice and barley were 0.55, 0.60 relatively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.539-543
• /
• 2003

The objective of this to improve the reliability of the safety evaluation code for Wolsong Tritium Removal Facility(WTRF) which is on the development for environmental assessment. To achieve this, tritium concentrations calculated in the Wolsong Units of this study are compared with that of the existing reference. As the result, the tritium concentration in each Wolsong nuclear power plant unit just before operating WTRF is 60.9Ci/kg, 36.3Ci/kg, 30.0Ci/kg, 26.5Ci/kg under the assumption that the WTRF begins operation in 2005, respectively. This result is almost same with that of the existing reference. But the reducing rate of tritium concentration in the moderator is faster than that of the reference result Finally it is expected to drop below 10Ci/kg after WTRF operation. And this result is also similar with that of the existing reference.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.161-164
• /
• 2010

The concentration of the tritium in precipitation from 2007 to 2009 has been analyzed for using tracer of groundwater study. The samples were collected monthly at Daejeon. The tritium concentrations in precipitation were ranged from 4.2 TU to 18.6 TU. The contents were higher at spring and fall season and lower at summer and winter season. The weighted average tritium content in precipitation was $7.85{\pm}0.46\;TU$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.226-234
• /
• 2018

Even though the nuclear power plants has many advantages, safety issues of nuclear power plants are crucial factors of reliable operation. A tritium detector is a useful sensor to analyze amount of exposed radiation from the nuclear power plants. Currently, concentration of underwater tritium is measured precisely but it takes very long time. Since electrolysis is extracted hydrogen from the coolant of nuclear power plant, it can motivate to develop new type of real-time sensor. In this study, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer is studied for candidate as preprocessor of real-time tritium detector. Characteristics of the unit PEM electrolyzer were experimentally investigated. A simulation model is developed to understand physical behavior of unit PEM electrolyzer under dynamic operation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.6
• /
• pp.1991-1999
• /
• 2021

The response changes of the specific growth rate of Lemna minor duckweed was modeled using the logarithms of frond numbers on tritium activity concentration and gamma radiation dose from cobalt 60. The concept of average specific growth rate depends on the general exponential growth pattern, where toxicity is estimated based on the effect on the growth rate. One of the main questions of the effect of the radiation dose on duckweed is how to correlate the effect of beta radiation with the effect of any other radiation for modeling radiation on Lemna minor. Experimental data were extrapolated by utilizing the OECD guidelines. A linear relationship of absorbed dose and activity concentration was obtained for the average dependency growth rate of Lemna minor as D = (0.1257)·A^0.585. The dose rate of gamma irradiation from ⁶⁰Co increases with tritium activity dependence, on the specific growth rate of the Lemna minor duckweed. An increase in the tritium activity causes a decrease in the specific growth rate of the Lemna minor duckweed. It indicates that as the quantity of the beta radiation dose increase in Lemna minor duckweed, a higher quantity of gamma radiation will be required to cause the same effect in the specific growth rate of Lemna minor duckweed. The relation between the inhibition of the Lemna minor seedling growth and gamma and beta radiation dosage agrees roughly with that between the decrease of survival rate or fertility and dosage.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2005.06a
• /
• pp.172-181
• /
• 2005

Collection Efficiency of a tritium bubbler being used at domestic nuclear power plants was studied. Equilibrium is attained while tritium vapour in air passes through the bubbler. When a lot of gas sample passes through the bubbler, the tritium concentration of water is raised and volume of water is decreased or increased. These phenomena give effect to the collection efficiency. Estimation of the tritium concentration of the water agreed with our experiments. If relative humidity is higher than 0.5, the efficiency becomes lower than 1 and if relative humidity is lower than 0.5, the efficiency becomes higher than 1, provided collected tritium is evaluated with original volume of the water. Though the relative humidity is riot 0.5, the efficiency can be maintained near 1 by making $\frac{saturated\; water\; vapour(cm^3_w)\times volume \; of \; gas \; sample(cm^3)}{volume\; of\; water(cm^3)}$ small

• Ocean Science Journal
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.39-48
• /
• 2008

Tritium ($^3H$ or T) has been produced mostly by atmospheric nuclear weapon tests, and entered the ocean in the form of water (HTO). As tritium exists as water itself, it has been regarded as an ideal tool to study the transport of water masses. In April 2001 we collected water samples in the western Japan Basin (WJB) for tritium and helium measurement. The timely sampling provided direct evidence of the bottom water formation, resulting in the drastic increase in tritium concentration from 0.3 TU in 2000 to 0.67 TU in 2001. Considering that the new bottom waters were found mostly in the WJB, it implies that maximum 1% of the whole bottom layer below 2600 m should be replaced with the surface water during the severely cold winter 2000 2001. $^3H-^3He$ age, showing the elapsed time since the water left from the surface, can be used to calculate oxygen utilization rate by dividing AOU by the age. Under the condition of 90% oxygen saturation in the surface water, the integration of OUR in the water column below 200 m yields net oxygen consumption of 12 mol $(O_2)m^{-2}yr^{-1}$, which corresponds to the export production of $99\;g\;C\;m^{-2}yr^{-1}$. This estimate is comparable to a previous estimate based on satellite data and implies that the ratio of export to primary production(f-ratio) is as high as 0.5 in the WJB.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.107-115
• /
• 1996

An electrolytic enrichment technique was used to measure low levels of tritium in seawater around the Korean peninsula. Tritium concentrations were determined for surface seawater samples collected from the East Sea, the South Sea, and the Yellow Sea. The tritium concentrations in surface seawater samples from the study area ranged from $0.12 BqL^{-1}\;to\;1.50BqL^{-1}$ with a mean value of $0.60{\pm}0.35 BqL^{-1}$. The means of the tritium concentration were $0.54{\pm}0.30 BqL^{-1}$ for the East Sea, $0.48{\pm}0.35 BqL^{-1}$ for the South Sea, and $0.77{\pm}0.32 BqL^{-1}$ for the Yellow Sea. The tritium concentrations in the sea areas did not show much difference no matter where the samples were taken. Due to the limited number and distribution of sampling points, no systematic change in tritium levels with latitude was observed. Measured tritium levels were similar to those observed in other data collected near Japan, but higher than mid-Pacific Ocean measurements.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.75-82
• /
• 1998

Tritium concentration in the atmosphere during HTO exposure was different between two experiments due to different velocity of HTO evaporation. Assimilation rate of the rice plant was considered to be higher than that of Chinese cabbage The uptake of atmospheric HTO into tissue free water tritium(TFWT) was higher in rice plants than in Chinese cabbage. However, organically bound tritium(OBT) concentration is relatively higher in Chinese cabbage than in rice. The specific activity ratio(SAR) increased slowly after HTO exposure and decreased gradually with time. The behaviour of HTO in the soil was affected by the environmental conditions.