Dose Delivered by Unit Amount of Tritium Released into the Environment.

Abstract

Dose conversion values (DCV: Sv/kg-Tritium release) associated with a release of tritiated hydrogen (HT) to the atmosphere have been studied in the field experiment performed at Chalk River Laboratories in Canada in 1987. For a near ground-level release of HT, DCVs of 2×10−2 and 3×10−3 Sv/kg-Tritium were evaluated at distances of 100 and 400m on the mean plume centerline, respectively. An important finding was that less than 1% of the respective doses was attributed to the primary HT plume (by submersion) and the rest to HTO (by inhalation plus skin absorption) which was formed due to conversion of the HT to HTO in the environment. A comparison to a postulated HTO release under experimental conditions predicted that corresponding dose conversion values may reach approximately 90 and 70 times greater than those of the HT release at respective distance. Extrapolation of these experimental dose conversion values into those in maximum-exposed conditions (MEC) was made. It was predicted that the ratios of dose...