NATURAL TRITIUM MEASUREMENTS - DETERMINATION OF THE ELECTROLYTIC ENRICHMENT FACTOR OF TRITIUM

For the purpose of improving the accuracy and precision of tritium measurements in natural waters, this paper proposes a new method for the estimation of tritium concentration after electrolytic enrichment. The proposed method was based on the fact that there is a reliable correlation between the water electrolytic enrichment of deuterium and that of tritium. The constancy of the ratio, k, during the electrolysis, k = alpha(beta - 1)/beta(alpha - 1), was experimentally verified, where alpha and beta are the separation factors of deuterium and tritium, respectively. The value of k depends only on the electrode materials and the type of cells. The value of k is far more constant than the values of beta/alpha and of log beta/log-alpha. When the value of k was experimentally measured beforehand, the initial concentration of sample water, (T/H)0, could be estimated by the formula (T/H)0 = (T/H)f[(D/H)f/(D/H)0]-k, where (T/H)f and (D/H)f are the tritium and deuterium contents after the electrolysis, and (D/H)0 is the deuterium content before the electrolysis.