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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
DOE opens pilot program to authorize test reactors outside national labs
Details of the plan to test new reactor concepts under the Department of Energy’s authority but outside national laboratory boundaries—first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released on May 23—were just released in a request for applications issued by the DOE.
S. B. Kim, S. L. Chouhan, P. A. Davis
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 3 | October 2011 | Pages 960-963
Measurement, Monitoring, and Accountancy | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12575
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The high mobility of tritium as HTO implies that, under steady-state conditions, the T/H ratio (or equivalently the HTO concentration) is the same in all water compartments of the environment. This is the basis of the specific activity (SA) model, which underlies almost all environmental tritium models. SA concepts apply to organically bound tritium (OBT) as well, since the OBT formed by a given plant process at a given time has a T/H ratio that reflects the ratio in the water that enters into that process. There is no empirical evidence that the bioaccumulation of tritium in aquatic and wetland plants will occur. OBT/HTO ratios less than one is consistently found in the laboratory where the HTO concentrations to which the plants are exposed can be held constant. These data suggest a value of 0.7 for the OBT/HTO ratio under equilibrium conditions in the laboratory. Theoretical considerations suggest that the value of the OBT/HTO ratio in plants is significantly different from one and, in most cases, greater than one. This is primarily due to the much longer residence time of OBT in plants as compared to HTO. The observed HTO concentrations are much higher than OBT concentrations, which makes OBT/HTO ratio smaller than unit in contrast with SA based expectations. In addition to this, the IMPACT model overpredicted HTO and OBT concentrations in plants and animals by a factor of 3 or 4, on average. This work is summary of the AECL funded research project (1).