title: Measurement of tritium activity in soils.
abstract: Tritium a radionuclide can accumulate in soils as a result of releases by the nuclear power industry. Currently there are no suitable methods to measure tritium levels in soils. A relatively simple extraction method is reported. The procedure involves an extraction of soil-borne tritium with NaOH and potassium permanganate solutions followed by standard scintillation counting procedures. The method detected tritium levels in soils that averaged 0.0099 Bq g-1 soil. Soil samples spiked with tritium were very reproducible with a coefficient of variability of 5%.
authors.affiliation: FGL Environmental, Inc., Santa Paula, CA 93061-0272.
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Castellano
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Dick
mesh_terms: D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D014316:Tritium / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; D014316:Tritium