ENVIRONMENTAL TRITIUM IN THE AREAS ADJACENT TO WOLSONG NUCLEAR-POWER-PLANT

The distribution of environmental tritium and the correlation coeffici ents between tritium concentrations in several environmental samples a nd the emissions of tritiated water vapor from Wolsong NPP 1 were stud ied. The annual mean concentrations of atmospheric HTO were in the ran ge 1.31-29.2 Bq m(-3) and the long-term atmospheric dilution factors w ere in the range 10(-7)-10(-6) s m(-3). Annual mean concentrations of tritium in groundwater were in the range 19.2-27.9 Bq l(-1) at N-1 and 64.1-189 Bq l(-1) at S-2, and were generally less than 0.2% of MPCw ( 222 kBq l(-1)). The concentrations of tritium in precipitation den eas ed exponentially with distance from Wolsong NPP 1, falling to current global levels at about 25 km off-site. The highest concentration of tr itium in soil moisture was observed in May and June, when the relative humidity was high. The concentrations of tritium in soil moisture wer e higher than those in precipitation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.