title: Concentration of 3H in ground water and estimation of committed effective dose due to ground water ingestion in some places in the Maharashtra state, India.
abstract: The measurement of tritium in environmental samples requires highest possible sensitivity. In the present study, the authors have optimised the counting window for the analysis of (3)H in environmental samples using the recently installed Ultra Low Level Quantulus 1220 Liquid Scintillation Counting at BARC to improve the detection limit of the system. The optimised counting window corresponding to the highest figure of merit of 883.8 was found to be 20-162 channels. Different brands of packaged drinking waters were analysed to select a blank that would define the system background. The minimum detectable activity (MDA) achieved was 1.5 Bq l(-1) for a total counting time of 500 min. The concentration of tritium in well and bore well water samples collected from the villages of Pune, villages located at 1.8 km from Tarapur Atomic Power Station, Kolhapur and Ratnagiri, was analysed. The activity concentration ranged from 0.55 to 3.66 Bq l(-1). The associated age-dependant dose from water ingestion in the study area was estimated. The effective committed dose recorded for different age classes is negligible compared with World Health Organization and US Environmental Protection Agency dose guidelines.
authors.affiliation: Radiation Safety Systems Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: S P D
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Bhade
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Kolekar
authors.forename: Rajvir
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Pradeepkumar
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005843:Geography; D060587:Groundwater / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D012588:Scintillation Counting; D014316:Tritium / Q000032:analysis*; D014867:Water; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water; D011868:Radioisotopes; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive; D014867:Water; D014316:Tritium