Improved technique for the routine determination of tritiated water in aqueous samples

A straightforward technique involving sub-boiling distillation has been dev eloped for the purification of river and effluent water samples prior to th e determination of tritium (H-3) by liquid scintillation analysis. The stud y evaluates the efficiency of sub-boiling distillation for decontaminating mixed beta/gamma emitters which could interfere with the tritium determinat ion. The technique effectively purifies tritiated water in aqueous samples from the major contaminating radioisotopes including Na-22, Mn-54, Co-60, Z n-65, Y-88, (CS)-C-137 and Eu-155. However, the technique requires less ana lyst set-up and supervision time than conventional distillation techniques and larger sample batches can therefore be routinely analysed. Recent impro vements to the design of the sub-boiling unit and applications of the unit are also discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.