The role of tritium in radiation safety of nuclear fuel cycle

An analytical review is made of the sources of formation, environmental distribution regularities and biological effects of natural and anthropogenic tritium. It is shown, that with the existing technology of nuclear fuel energy production only 5-10 per cent of the total tritium produced is maintained in high-level wastes. The rest of tritium enters the environment due to operation of atomic power stations and fuel reprocessing plants. As a result, nowadays the rate of tritium release from fuel cycle plants is commensurable with that of its natural (1.7+0.9) MCi/year. The forecasting of the development of the nuclear power industry promises the amount of tritium in the biosphere to attain 300-500 MCi/year. The biological effects of this process are discussed