Determining the amounts of organically bound tritium and radiocarbon using a combined preparation step and liquid scintillation spectrometry

The ideal method for monitoring the environment should be rapid, low cost, and sufficiently sensitive to detect any changes caused by nuclear facilities during their normal operation. A combined initial preparation step for environmental samples in the detection of organically bound tritium (OBT) and radiocarbon (¹⁴C) makes the analytical process quicker, while the use of a Parr 1121 large-capacity oxygen vessel, which allows the combustion of around 20 g of dried organic sample, reduces the detection limits for both parameters. The method was validated with inter-laboratory intercomparisons for the OBT and a comparison with the official values of environmental samples for the ¹⁴C. (author)