Analytical Services > View by Sample Type > Water > Tritium

Stable Isotopes | Radiocarbon | Dissolved Gas | Nitrates

Tritium Analysis of Groundwater

Advantageous for age dating of groundwater and identifying water that is less than 40 years old, Isotech offers several different types of analyses that can be used to evaluate tritium concentrations in landfill leachates (some leachates have tritium concentrations of several thousand TU).

Tritium Analysis by Direct Counting (TDC)

Applications: Useful for screening water samples to determine the applicability of tritium analysis, or where tritium concentrations are expected to be ≥15 TU.

Sample size required: 50 ml of water, 100 ml preferred.

Analyses includes: Distillation and radiometric measurement of ³H concentration.

Tritium Analysis with Electrolytic Enrichment (TEE)

Applications: Useful for tritium concentrations too low to be measured by direct counting. Lowers detection level to about 1 TU.

Analyses includes: Electrolytic enrichment and radiometric measurement of ³H concentration. Samples are generally first submitted to a quick semi-quantitative analysis to verify that the tritium concentrations are indeed low. This prevents contamination of our electrolysis cells with "hot" samples and means that you do not have to pay for electrolytical enrichment unless it is necessary.

Sample size required: 250 ml water.

Ultra-Low Level Tritium Analysis (TUL)

Applications: Useful when LDL is less than 1 TU.

Analyses includes: Double enrichment and extended counting.

Sample size required: 500 ml of water.

Tritium analysis with detection levels of less than 1 TU are possible using the double enrichment technique.