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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
A. Trivedi, R.B. Richardson, D. Galeriu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 982-987
Tritium Safety | Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30533
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritiated watero (HTO) represents the mosl important occupational and environmental exposures to tritium, as far as radiation protection is concerned We have studied the dynamics of HTO and organically bound tritium* (OBT) in urine, feces and blood from male workers at 100–300 d following an acute intake of HTO. Blood and cumulative 24 h urine and fecal samples were collected and analyzed for HTO and OBT. The activity concentrations oi HTO in urine and HTO in feces were in equilibrium and were representative of HTO in the body water (HTO in blood). The ratio of bound tritium per gram hydrogen (Bq·H−1) in organic matter in feces (OBTfeces) to urine (OBTurine) was 1.0 ± 0.1. Similarly, the ratios of OBTblood to OBTurine and OBTblood to OBTfeces were 0.9 ± 0.2 and 1.1 ± 0.2, respectively. These results suggest that, providing an equilibrium condition exists, a measurement of the tritium activity per unit mass of organic matter in urine or feces can provide an assessment of the specific activity of tritium in the organic fraction ol the soft tissue. The activity concentrations of HTO and OBT in urine samples, from a few days up to 300 d post-exposure, were examined for the clearance kinetics of HTO in urine and OBT in urine. The early presence of OBT in urine indicated that a portion of tritium from the ingested HTO is rapidly fixed into organic constituents of the body. The half-life for the longer-term component of OBT in urine is comparable to the half-life for the longer-term component of HTO in urine. This close relationship between the longer-term excretion of HTO in urine and OBT in urine suggests that most of the HTO produced in its longer-term component is a by-product of metabolized OBT. This work has demonstrated that OBT is excreted in urine in all examinations, up to 300 d post-exposure to HTO, and that a fraction of the metabolized OBT is also excreted in feces.
