Fission product tritium in separations wastes and in the ground water

Ground-water contribution to dose from past Hanford Operations

“…Tritium is a low-energy beta emitter that was not detected with the gross beta measurement methods using during early monitoring at the Hanford Site. In 1959, tritium was reported in offsite publications as a byproduct of uranium fission (Haney, Brown, and Reisenauer 1962). After this discovery, waste streams discharged to the ground and the ground water beneath the 200 Areas were analyzed for tritium.…”

Analysis of vadose zone tritium transport from an underground storage tank release using numerical modeling and geostatistics

“…At Hanford, Washington, approximately one-half to two-thirds of the tritium produced by fission has been released to the ground (Haney et al, 1962). At Savannah River, nearly all of the tritiated water from the aqueous stream used in fuel reprocessing was discharged to open seepage pits, and most of this tritium eventually entered the ground (Horton, 1963).…”