CONTINUOUS, REALTIME WATERMONITORING FOR TRITIUM AND OTHER RADIONUCLIDES

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CONTINUOUS, REAL-TIMEWATER-MONITORING FOR
TRITIUM AND OTHER RADIONUCLIDES

Robert Goldstein Technical Associates
Overhoff Danny Dotson -- Jefferson National
Lab, Retired
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• The way it was--
• No real-time detection of Alpha, Tritium / Beta
  emitters
• Their Radiation is not penetrating enough to pass
  through the water to reach and to enter a detector

TA OVERHOFF
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That is bad because-- Tritium and other
radioactive materials need to be monitored and
measured in the..

• Environment
• Research Lab
• Medicine
• Industry
• Fission and
• Fusion

TA OVERHOFF
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Request from J-Lab

• Behind the accelerator target at
• Jefferson National Lab is a tank of ultra-pure
  water that serves as an energy dump for the
  particle beam.
• Tritium is created and should be measured in an
  automatic continuous system to allow disposal.
• Could TA develop such a measurement system?

• 5 Curies per year
• 10mCi per day
• 20,000 pCi/l (drinking water standard)

TA OVERHOFF
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Challenges and Methods Physics, Optics,
Engineering
Even in the air, Tritium is hard to detect 18.590
KeV beta emission 6 Kev average Requires that
the sample pass inside the detector, and deposit
its energy in some detectable form. Typical is
an ion-chamber or gas proportional detector, A
liquid scintillation system is possible with
water sample, But is expensive with large tanks
of scintillation solution.
TA OVERHOFF
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The water flows through a Bed Of Sandmade of
crushed scintillation crystals
Methods Physics
Large Surface Area
Much of the Tritium is close enough to a grain
of sand (tiny scintillation crystal) that the
beta can make it to shore and Send some light
to our photo-sensors.
TA OVERHOFF
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Methods Optics
Photon bursts from betas colliding with
scintillator
All flow-cell elements are optically transparent
TA OVERHOFF
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Water Flow Path
Methods Engineering
TA OVERHOFF
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Valves for manual or automated Tritium disposal
TA OVERHOFF
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J-LAB RESULTS
Veto-valve level set at 80 of 20,000
picoCurie/liter Safe drinking water
levels Savings over 300,000 in tank trucks or
waste solidification and waste disposal fees
alone.
TA OVERHOFF
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SSS-33-M8
OTHER USES LAB MONITOR

• TRITIUM IN WATER MONITOR
• REAL TIME CONTINUOUS
• SENSITIVITY TO 0.1 nanoCurie /ml

TA OVERHOFF
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OTHER USES Challenge--squeeze it to 2
diameter?! Down-Hole Tritium
Monitor
TA OVERHOFF
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OTHER USES Down-Hole
Tritium Monitor
PROBE / SONDE LAYOUT
TA OVERHOFF
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SSS-33-DHC
OTHER USES Down-Hole
Tritium Monitor

• DOWN HOLE TRITIUM IN WATER DETECTOR
• SENSITIVE TO BELOW EPA CLEAN DRINKING WATER
  LEVELS
• NOT INFLUENCED BY OTHER NUCLIDES

TA OVERHOFF
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OTHER USES Drinking Water
Monitor

• CHEMIST-IN-A-BOXTM
• SSS-33-5FT
• Continuous alpha/beta tritium monitoring
• Reservoirs, Aqueducts, Filtration Plants
• Historical Data Retrieval
• Acute Levels Monitor
• Recently scheduled for EPA trials

TA OVERHOFF
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RESULTS Drinking Water Monitor
TA OVERHOFF
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RESULTS Drinking Water Monitor
Chronic Levels Monitor
TA OVERHOFF
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OTHER USES Chemical--Biological--Radiological
Water Monitor
Unitecttm
TA OVERHOFF
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RESULTS Chemical--Biological--Radiological
Gel Cap Cartridge
1.0mg/liter

TA OVERHOFF
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OTHER USES Suitcase Monitor

• Engineering Challenge Miniaturization
• From 1.5 cubic meters -- reduce volume by factor
  of 20 to suitcase size.
• From 120VAC to Solar battery.

TA OVERHOFF
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OTHER USES Backpack Monitor

• Engineering Challenge Miniaturize and Ruggedize

Reduce volume, change shape for military backpack
use
TA OVERHOFF
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The Need for Monitoring
TRITIUM IN GROUNDWATERHANFORD1964-1993WASHINGTO
N PUBLIC HEALTH V.14/SUMMER 1996
TA OVERHOFF
WETF
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FOUR CONTAMINATION SCENARIOS
Terrorism
Leaching
Power
Dumping
TA OVERHOFF
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Strategic Placement for Drinking Water
Reservoir
Well-head
Water Flow Paths
TA OVERHOFF
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Strategic Placement for Any Water
Water uses Drinking Agriculture Industry Environm
ental Waste
Settling Ponds
Filtration Plants
TA OVERHOFF
Pipelines
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Remedies

• Upon Detection
• STOP THE WATER FLOW
• Determine Mitigation

TA OVERHOFF
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We will need more tritium and more Tritium
monitoring as we ramp up for Fusion Power
TA OVERHOFF
Published by the Australian Science Archives
Project on ASAPWeb, 26 June 1996 Comments or
corrections to Bright Sparcs (bsparcs_at_asap.unimel
b.edu.au) Prepared by Denise Sutherland
Updated by Elissa Tenkate Date modified 19
February 1998
Top Sir Mark Oliphant Bright Sparcs
Exhibitions Bright Sparcs ASAPWeb
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NOW WEVE ADDED-- Real Time WATER MONITORS for
TRITIUM and other CONTAMINENTS
TA OVERHOFF