Tritium enrichment in the hydration sphere of inorganic salts

The currently known procedures to selectively accumulate tritium are very time- and energy consuming and not able to condition large waste streams. However, also the storage of tritiated aqueous solutions poses problems, since through evaporation of tritiated water and isotope exchange reactions between hydrogen isotopes, tritium can relatively easily reach the environment. Earlier studies in our institute showed that 3H is accumulated near and inside DNA. Obviously, 3H was accumulated in exchangeable hydrogen bonds. The strong effect can be understood as a direct consequence of the much shorter de Broglie wavelength of 3H, which favors 3H to occupy positions that are most closely confined by barriers, i.e. weak hydrogen bonds. If this hypothesis is valid, also inorganic substances that form weak hydrogen bonds with their hydration shields should accumulate 3H. Correspondingly, inorganic salts, forming hydrogen bonds of different strength with their hydration shields were investigated. (orig.)