Evaluation of OBT Concentrations in Lake Fish Using a Semi-automatic Combustion System

Abstract

The Organically bound tritium (OBT) is one of the most difficult radionuclides to analyze through radiometry. In particular, the combustion process for exchanging from organic material to HTO requires skilled techniques. To make the operation simple, safe and reproducible, a semi-automatic combustion system was developed. In general, tritium concentrations in the environment are low. However, there is a report that tritium concentrations have been detected in precipitation in highlatitude areas of Japan¹⁾. In this study, lake fish collected from Shikotsu Lake at Hokkaido were sampled and the OBT was analyzed by the developed system. The result showed that the OBT concentration was just barely detectable by the liquid scintillation counter.