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

Abstract

In arid regions, groundwater contains extremely low tritium levels that cannot be detected by conventional Liquid Scintillation Counters (LSC). Accurate evaluation of tritium activity concentration requires enrichment of this low-level tritium by a known factor. To address this challenge, we developed an electrolysis process using specially designed electrolytic cells following International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guidelines. The process successfully enriched nine spiked samples containing known tritium quantities, with subsequent tritium activity concentration measurements performed by scintillation counting. The enriched water exhibited activity levels comparable to the spiked samples. Furthermore, we observed a clear correlation between the enrichment factor and tritium activity. Our results demonstrate that this electrolysis system with fabricated cells can achieve enrichment factors ranging from approximately 10 to 40 times the initial tritium concentration. The simple design and fabrication of this electrolysis process, combined with its adjustable parameters, make it a cost-effective solution for measuring low-level tritium using conventional LSC systems.