Activation of Organically-Bound Tritium by Tritiated Water in Soil

Abstract

The fate of tritium in the environment is a target of interest in many studies. However reported concentrations of organically bound tritium (OBT) in soil are not well understood. In this study, a supplementary non-biological process of soil OBT activation in the environment was explored. The vicinity of SRB Technologies (Pembroke, Ontario) was chosen as the sampling location because of a significant airborne tritium release prior to 2001 which resulted in groundwater contamination. Soil cores were extracted from the ground near the tritium-releasing facility stack in 2017 and split into 10 cm subsamples for HTO/OBT, total carbon and hydrogen, particle size, thermogravimetric, radiocarbon and 3He mass spectrometry analyses. Observed HTO profiles revealed elevated tritium concentrations still retained in the soil. The results indicated that clay bound tritium masks the OBT signal and cannot be easily distinguished. Multiple short-term sample rinses with tritium-free water have little effect on clay bound water removal. Therefore, clay bound tritium should to be addressed in any future research related to soil OBT.