ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference 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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Deep geologic repository progress—2025 Update
Editor's note: This article has was originally published in November 2023. It has been updated with new information as of June 2025.
Outside my office, there is a display case filled with rock samples from all over the world. It contains a disk of translucent, orange salt from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.; a core of white-and-bronze gneiss from the site of the future deep geologic repository in Eurajoki, Finland; several angular chunks of fine-grained, gray claystone from the underground research laboratory at Bure, France; and a piece of coarse-grained granite from the underground research tunnel in Daejeon, South Korea.
H. Förstel, H. Papke, I. Hillmann
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 1258-1263
Tritium Release Experiment | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25313
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Laboratory experiments and field observations have shown that elemental tritium HT is completely converted into tritiated water ( HTO ) by the activity of soil microorganisms. No organically bound tritium ( OBT ) is formed initially, but some tritium is taken up into soil biomass by general biosynthesis. Only a small fraction of tritium is directly incorporated from HTO into OBT with the non-exchangable portion becoming the dominant source of tritium in OBT. In practice a small fraction of non-exchangeable OBT must be separated by vacuum distillation from a large amount of soil water containing HTO. The method has been tested by labelling the soil water with HTO and H218O, respectively. Several steps are necessary to obtain a complete yield. During the incubation experiments a continuous loss of HTO by an exchange between soil water and air water vapour must be taken into account. Uptake of tritium into biomass of about 0.1 % per week was observed. The biological synthesis and consequently the uptake of tritium from HTO into OBT can be stimulated by the addition of energy sources such as glucose.