Estimation of Tissue Free Water Tritium (TFWT) and Organically Bound Tritium (OBT) in Terrestrial Samples around Kakrapar Atomic Power Station in India

Tritium (H3) is one of the constituents of liquid and gaseous effluents from nuclear power plants. Tritium released to the environment gets incorporated into exposed plants mainly in two chemical forms namely Tissue Free Water Tritium (TFWT) and Organically Bound Tritium(OBT).The distribution of tritium in the environment depends on the environmental conditions and type of plant. In this paper the TFWT and OBT estimations were carried out from different terrestrial samples of KAPS environment. TFWT was extracted by using distillation method and OBT was estimated along with the hydrogen present in dry matter using sample oxidiser. Tritium activity was measured by Tricarb 3170 TR/SL Model. All the samples showed TFWT and OBT activities Below Detectable Level (BDL) which proves that even though the KAPS is commercially operational since 1993, the impact on the KAPS environment is statistically insignificant.