In the studies related to trace analysis in meteorology, hydrology, medical and clinical research, the measurement and monitoring of tritium released from nuclear facilities and its health physics aspects on human and the environment are of growing importance. The techniques employed currently for the enrichment of tritium are carried out using large samples and require long periods of operation (7 days or more) to obtain the enriched tritium sample. In the present investigation, a laboratory scale chromatography based system was designed, constructed and commissioned successfully to collect enriched tritiated water samples which were then counted to determine the levels of activity. The total time taken to conduct the complete enrichment procedure and counting of the collected samples was less than one working day. This system also showed the capability of enriching quantities of water samples as small as 20 ml. This was about ten times less than required in the conventional enrichment techniques. Extensive efforts were made to attain optimum operational, reproducible and efficient measurements of tritium enrichment for quantitative analysis. The developed experimental technique involved injecting a known volume of water into a preheated furnace to react with magnesium turnings, in the presence of a carrier gas, to produce the hydrogen isotopes. These isotopes were separated using the principles of chromatography. Liquid scintillation counting method was employed to determine the activity of the collected samples. Two gases, nitrogen and helium, were utilized as the carrier gases during this investigation. Best values of enrichment were obtained with the use of nitrogen as a carrier gas, but the samples collected were difficult to count due to the formation of ammonia with consequent chemical complications.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:240675 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Al-Othmany, Dheya Shuja'a |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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