Tritium uncertainty analysis for surface water samples at the Savannah River site

Details

• Personal Author:
  Atkinson RF ; Eddy TP ; Jannik T
• Description:
  Radiochemical analysis of surface water samples in the framework of Environmental Monitoring have associated uncertainties for the radioisotopic results reported. This uncertainty analysis pertains to the tritium results from surface water samples collected at five locations on the Savannah River near the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS). Uncertainties can result from the field-sampling routine, can be incurred during transport due to the physical properties of the sample, from equipment limitations, and from the measurement instrumentation used. The uncertainty reported by the SRS in their Site Environmental Report currently considers the counting uncertainty in the instrument, which is the standard reporting protocol for radioanalytical chemistry results. The main focus of this paper is to give an overview of all uncertainty components in the tritium measurements, to estimate the total uncertainty according to ISO 17025, and to propose experiments to verify some of the estimated uncertainties. The main uncertainty components discovered and investigated in this paper are tritium absorption or desorption in the sample container, fractionation during distillation, pipette volume, and tritium standard uncertainty. The goal is to quantify these uncertainties and to establish a combined uncertainty in order to increase the scientific depth of the SRS Site Environmental Report. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Chemistry Environmental Monitoring Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Chemical Properties Environmental Monitoring Measurement Equipment Physical Properties Radiochemical Analysis Radioisotopes Sampling Surface Properties Water Sampling
• ISSN:
  0017-9078
• Publisher:
  Health Physics Society
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  103
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20049001
• Citation:
  Health Phys 2012 Aug; 103(2)(Suppl 1):S57
• CAS Registry Number:
  Tritium (CAS RN 10028-17-8)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  University of Colorado, Denver
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20070701
• Source Full Name:
  Health Physics. Abstracts of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society, July 22-26, 2012, Sacramento, California
• Supplement:
  1
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:21e61e1517115b47778d9cecd5b93c62af7dfc021cdb01ed7456bb40a45d748adedf0149184a1c915fefa340a352cb51c4ded9c30bced5ae7a8d332a875689af
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/203604/cdc_203604_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 953.41 KB ]