FINAL REPORT FOR TRITIUM WATER MONITOR

The objective of this Plant Directed Research and Demonstration (PDRD) task was to develop a system to safetly analyze tritium in moisture collected from glovebox atmospheres in the Savannah River Site (SRS) Tritium Facility. In order to minimize potential radiation exposures that could occur in handling and diluting high-tritium-content water, SRS sought alternatives to liquid-scintillation counting. The proposed system determines tritium concentrations by measuring Bremsstrahlung radiation induced by low-energy beta interactions in liquid samples. Results show that, after a short counting period (30 seconds), detection limits are three orders of magnitude below the described concentration of tritiated water in the zeolite beds. Additionally, this report covers the analysis of process samples and the investigation of several cell window materials including beryllium, aluminum, and copper. Final tests reveal that alternate window materials and thicknesses can be used to obtain useful results. In particular, a window of stainless steel of moderate thickness (0.3 cm) can be used for counting relatively high levels of tritium