Simple Pretreatment Method for Tritium Measurement in Environmental Water Samples using a Liquid Scintillation Counter

The aim of this study is to evaluate quantitatively the effectiveness of the ion exchange resins and activated carbon in tritium measurement. A standard water sample was adjusted to a tritium concentration of 5 Bq L−1. This sample was stirred with the cation exchange (PCH) and anion exchange (PAO) resins and activated carbon. After stirring the samples, the supernatant in each sample was filtered through 0.45 µm membrane filters. The electrical conductivity in an experimental condition, where the amounts of PCH, PAO, and activated carbon were 0.3 g, 0.3 g, and 0.6 g, respectively, was lower than that of the sample treated by the distillation method. The distillation method requires approximately 12 h to process; however, the same level of results was achieved in 5 min. The tritium concentration in each experiment was within the standard deviation. These results suggested that proposed batch method involving ion exchange resins and activated carbon had negligible effect on tritium measurement. The ion concentration and the total organic carbon for the samples were decreased in 5 min. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the impurity removal from the sample water by ion exchange resins.