Development of An Automated System to Measure Tritium in Groundwater: A toll to Enable Remote Field Monitoring for the Presence and Migration of Tritium at contaminated DOE and nuclear generating site

The long-term monitoring of groundwater contamination plumes to determine the fate of contaminants in the environment is expensive and labor intensive. Current baseline methods have resulted in monitoring programs that collect less data than is required to fully understand the fate and transport mechanisms of the contaminants. An automated field-deployable monitoring system using a separation/scintillation method will be developed to monitor tritium concentrations. The system will be capable of being deployed and operated in the field for several months measuring iodine concentrations below the regulatory limits at a lower cost than the baseline methods. A prototype analytical system was developed and tested. The system successfully detected tritium below the regulatory limit and appeared to have the necessary attributes for deployment in the field. The Phase II will further reduce the risks of the technologies with field deployment of two systems to allow for near real-time monitoring at Hanford or other DOE Sites.Commercial Applications and other Benefits: The system has application at DOE sites with radiological contaminants (Hanford Site, Washington). The system will decrease monitoring costs, enhance the understanding of the fate of the radiologicals in the environment, and ultimately decrease the cost of groundwater remediation activities