Field analyses of tritium at environmental levels

An automated, remote system to analyze tritium in aqueous solutions at environmental levels has been tested and has demonstrated laboratory quality tritium analysis capability in near real time. The field deployable tritium analysis system (FDTAS) consists of a novel multi-port autosampler, an on-line water purification system, and a prototype stop-flow liquid scintillation counter (LSC) which can be remotely controlled for unmanned operation. Backgrounds of ∼1.5 counts/min in the tritium channel are routinely measured with a tritium detection efficiency of ∼25% for the custom 11 ml cell. A detection limit of <0.3 pCi/ml has been achieved for 100-min counts using a 50 : 50 mixture of sample and cocktail. To assess the long-term performance characteristics of the FDTAS, a composite sampler was installed on the Savannah River, downstream of the Savannah River Site, and collected repetitive 12-hour composite samples over a 14 day period. The samples were analyzed using the FDTAS and in the laboratory using a standard bench-top LSC. The results of the tritium analyses by the FDTAS and by the laboratory LSC were consistent for comparable counting times at the typical river tritium background levels (∼1 pCi/ml).