Tritium in the aquatic environment of Ozersk

Abstract

Introduction. The article presents data on tritium concentrations in various types of aquatic environments (rainfall, snowfall, water from the Irtyash, B. Nanoga, Kyzyltash lakes, and the source of the Techa river, tap water, ice from the refrigerator, and urine) within the city of Ozersk and on the territory immediately adjacent to it in the impact zone of Mayak Production Center in the Southern Urals. Material and methods. For the quantitative determination of tritium in various aqueous media, sampling was carried out from 2002 to 2016. Samples were analyzed by the scintillation method using a single-stage electrolytic enrichment procedure. Results. Almost all aquatic environments in Ozersk in terms of their tritium content exceed the technogenic background established for the Ural region. On average, this excess is by 14, 11, 9, 19, 4, 6, 19 times for rainfall, snowfall, drinking water of residential premises, ice, the water of the Irtyash and B. Nanoga lakes, water from the source of the river Techa accordingly. Elevated concentrations of tritium in the urine of Ozersk people and the adjacent territory were noted in comparison with literature data for other regions of the world. Conclusion. The obtained research results revealed the levels of pollution of the aquatic environment of Ozersk with tritium relative to the level of technogenic background. These works indicate the need to develop a method for cleaning tritium emissions and discharges by nuclear enterprises to reduce the risk to the population.

Tritium in environmental objects in the area affected by FSUE Mayak Production Association in 2014–15

“…The result of tritium VA measurement in a sample from the control borehole located in the Shershni settlement (Chelyabinsk) was lower than the detection limit of 8 Bq l −1 . No statistically significant difference according to the Wilcoxon test (W = 109, p = 0.69) was observed between the median values of the results of tritium VA measurements in water samples from boreholes carried out in 2014 and similar measurements of tritium VA in the period from 2005 to 2006 (median-23 Bq l −1 ) [13,14].…”

“…In the early 21st century various studies of the levels of tritium volume activity (VA) in environmental objects of the Mayak PA affected area were performed, comparisons were made against the levels of the earlier years, besides the patterns of changes in VA of this nuclide were stated depending on such parameters as: distance from Mayak PA, depth of the well or of the boreholes, distance from Techa riverhead [6,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. In water samples from open reservoirs collected in the period from 2001 to 2003 within a radius of 95 km from Mayak PA tritium VA was within a range from 8 to 113 Bq l −1 with average value of 16 Bq l −1 (n = 34the number of reservoirs).…”

“…In the samples from wells and boreholes collected in the summer-autumn period in 2005-06 within a radius of 45 km from Mayak PA tritium VA was within a range from 5 to 78 Bq l −1 [13,14].…”

“…it was 3.4.3.9 times lower than at the sites close to Mayak PA reactor production facility. In rainfall of Chebarkul city that was selected as a control region tritium VA made on average 15 Bq l −1 (n = 20-the number of samples) [15,16].…”

“…Tritium VA in one of the snow samples collected at a distance of 7.5 km from Mayak PA in NNW direction that had fallen out in February 2014 made 145 Bq l −1 . The Mann-Whitney test has revealed a statistically significant difference between the median values (W = 530, p = 6.2 × 10 −6 ) of tritium VA samplings in daily precipitation in 2007[13,14] (median value made 35 Bq l −1 , n = 37) and tritium VA in daily precipitation in 2014 (median value made 11 Bq l −1 , n = 16). This fact supports the conclusion made on possible decrease of tritium air emissions from Mayak PA, obtained in the course of analyzing the data on open reservoirs.…”