Determination of Organically Bound Tritium (OBT) in a Wheat Sample and Its Interlaboratory Comparison Study

Tritium (³H) is released from nuclear power plants during their normal operation or decommissioning, and may cause mutation of the cell and/or death of the cell in human tissues or organs by its inhalation and ingestion. In conclusion, we have determined ³H in the wheat sample by the combustion of the sample, the oxidation of produced gases from the pyrolized sample, and LSC analysis of the scintillation cocktail mixed 0.1N HNO₃ solution absorbing HTO produced by the oxidation of gases. The combustion method was easy and rapid to analyze OBT in the sample. The minimum detectable activity (MDA) of the combustion method was 16 ⁓ 18 Bq/kg. Our result (37.3 ± 15.0 Bq/kg) was similar to other international laboratories' results although they used different LSC cocktails, combustion methods and measurement equipment.