Electrolytic Process for Concentrating Trace Tritium in Water for Tritium Activity Measurement by Liquid Scintillation Counter

Abstract

In arid regions, the water contains very low levels of tritium, which cannot be detected by conventional liquid scintillation counters (LSC). For the evaluation of the tritium activity concentration, it is crucial to enrich the low-level tritium of groundwater with a known factor. To address this, we developed an electrolysis process with specially designed electrolytic cells following the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA). The electrolysis process enriched nine spiked samples with known quantities of tritium, and the tritium activity concentration was measured by a scintillation counter. The enriched water showed comparable activity levels to the spiked samples. In addition, the enrichment factor and tritium activity are correlated. Our study demonstrated that the electrolysis process with fabricated electrolytic cells could achieve an enrichment factor of approximately ten to forty times the initial tritium concentration. The simple design and fabrication of the electrolysis process and its ability to control various parameters make it cost-effective for measuring low-level tritium using a conventional LSC.