1984 Volume 33 Issue 11 Pages 776-779
The desorption behavior of tritium from the glass ampoule which originally contained 37 GBq of carrier free tritium gas was studied by etching the surface with a diluted hydrofluoric acid solution or by heating at the constant rate up to 800°C. The total amount of tritium sorbed on the inner surface of the ampoule was found to be 3.9±0.7 GBq, This value corresponded to more than 10% of tritium contained in the ampoule. The release rate of tritiated water (HTO) was 2.3 kBq/cm2⋅min, and the amount of HTO desorbed was strongly depended on the atmosphere. Thus, special precaution should be paid to the processing of a vessel once containing such an amount of tritium.