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Tritium in the environment and its impact assessment against the existing radiation protection framework revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2012

J. Barescut ,
D. Lariviere ,
T. Stocki ,
N. Jain  and
A.L. Bhatia
N. Jain
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Government College, Chimanpura (Jaipur) Rajasthan, India
A.L. Bhatia
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
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Abstract

With the development of nuclear power programme, an additional consideration outside the existing radiation protection framework appeared: the need to assess not only the level of exposure, but also to take into consideration the accidents which could release large inventories of radioactivity. With the expansion of nuclear commitments, the inventories of Tritium are bound to increase. The possible use of tritium as the fuel for fusion reactors in the near future may result in an additional source of tritium. Swiss albino mice of 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6 weeks of age were injected with tritiated water (HTO) at the dose 111 kBq/gram body weight and the animals from each age group autopsied on 1, 7 and 30 days post- injection. The mouse show radiovulnerability with a capability to repair and recover from the rendered damage during the first half (1 week to 3 week) of postnatal development, whereas during the second half (4 week to 6 week of age) a tendency towards radioresistance is achieved. The presentation is an attempt to revisit the behaviour of tritium with its possible implications on the environment in accordance with the presently projected radiation protection framework.

Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 46 , Issue 6: ICRER 2011 – International Conference on Radioecology & Environmental Radioactivity: Environment & Nuclear Renaissance , 2011 , pp. S385 - S391
Copyright
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2011

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