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Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
K. J. Hofstetter, H. T. Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 446-451
Safety; Measurement and Accountability; Operation and Maintenance; Application | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29786
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The development of a low-level tritium monitor for aqueous effluents has explored several potential techniques. In one method, a water-immiscible liquid scintillation cocktail was ultrasonically mixed with an aqueous sample to form a water-cocktail dispersion for analysis by liquid scintillation spectrometry. The organic cocktail could then be reused after phase separation. Of the cocktails tested, a toluene-based cocktail showed the highest tritium detection efficiency (7%). In another technique, the sensitivity of various solid scintillators (plastic beads, crushed inorganic salts, etc.) to tritium in aqueous solutions was measured. The most efficient solid scintillator had a 2% tritium detection efficiency. In a third method, a large surface area detector was constructed from thin fibers of plastic scintillator. This detector had a 0.1% intrinsic tritium detection efficiency. While sensitivities of -25 kBq/L of tritium for a short count have been attained using several of these techniques, none can yet reach the environmental level of < 1 kBq/L in aqueous solutions.