Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T20:29:09.113Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tritium in the environment and its impact assessment against the existing radiation protection framework revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2012

J. Barescut ,
D. Lariviere ,
T. Stocki ,
N. Jain  and
A.L. Bhatia
N. Jain
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Government College, Chimanpura (Jaipur) Rajasthan, India
A.L. Bhatia
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
Get access

Abstract

With the development of nuclear power programme, an additional consideration outside the existing radiation protection framework appeared: the need to assess not only the level of exposure, but also to take into consideration the accidents which could release large inventories of radioactivity. With the expansion of nuclear commitments, the inventories of Tritium are bound to increase. The possible use of tritium as the fuel for fusion reactors in the near future may result in an additional source of tritium. Swiss albino mice of 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6 weeks of age were injected with tritiated water (HTO) at the dose 111 kBq/gram body weight and the animals from each age group autopsied on 1, 7 and 30 days post- injection. The mouse show radiovulnerability with a capability to repair and recover from the rendered damage during the first half (1 week to 3 week) of postnatal development, whereas during the second half (4 week to 6 week of age) a tendency towards radioresistance is achieved. The presentation is an attempt to revisit the behaviour of tritium with its possible implications on the environment in accordance with the presently projected radiation protection framework.

Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 46 , Issue 6: ICRER 2011 – International Conference on Radioecology & Environmental Radioactivity: Environment & Nuclear Renaissance , 2011 , pp. S385 - S391
Copyright
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NCRP (1979). Tritium and other radionuclide labelled organic compounds incorporated in genetic material. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, Report 63, Washington, D.C.
Libby. W.F. (1946). Atmospheric helium-3 and radiocarbon from cosmic radiation. Phys. Rev. 69, 671.
Altman, J. & W.J. Anderson (1969). Early effects of X-irradiation of the cerebellum in infant rats. Decimation and reconstitution of the external granular layer. Exp. Neurol. 24, 196-216
Altman, J. and J.L. Nicholson (1971). Cell pyknosis in the cerebellar cortex of infant rats following low-level X-irradiation, Radiat. Res., 46, 476-489.
Jain, N. and A.L. Bhatia (1993). Age associated tritium- induced changes in developing mouse cerebellum. Proc. Int. Symp on Biological effects of Law Lever exposures to Radiation and Related Agents. Changchun, P.R. China, October 12–16 (1993) 92.
Jain, N. and A.L. Bhatia (1994). Dose dependent qualitative analysis of the effects of tritiated water (HTO) on the developing mouse cerebellum from 15th day post-coitum. Proc. fourth conference on Radiation Protection and Dosimetry Orlando, Florida, October 23–27 edited by W.H. Casson, M. Thein and J.S. Bogard, (1996) 357-365.
Jain, N. and A.L. Bhatia (1996a). Age dependent investigations on the postnatal development of Swiss albino mouse cerebellum after an acute HTO administration. Proc. Int. Symp. on Gerontology and Seventh Conference of the Association of Gerontology, New Delhi, India, edited by Prof. Vinod Kumar (1996) 463-464.
Thompson, R.C. and J.E. Ballou (1954). Studies of metabolic turnover with tritium as a tracer IV metabolically inert lipid and protein fractions from the rat. J. Biol. chem., 208, 883.
Pinson, E.A. and W.H. Langham (1957). Physiology and toxicology of tritium in man. J. Appl. Physiol., 10, 108-126.
Mewissen, D.J., M. Furedi, A. Ugarte and J.H. Rust (1975). Incorporation of tritium from tritiated water: Comparison with tritiated Thymidine, Uridine and Leucine. Presented at second world congress on water Resources, New Delhi, India, Dec. 12–16 (1975).
Bruwaene, R Van, G. B. Gerber, R. Kirchman, J. Van Den Hoek and J. Vankerkom (1982). Tritium metabolism in young pigs after exposure of mothers to tritium oxide during pregnancy. Radiat. Res., 91, 124-134.
Cerda, H. (1983b). Early effects of gamma radiation on the developing rat cerebellum. Induction of cell pycnosis.Acta. Radiol. Oncol. , 22, (Fasc 2), 163-166.
Das, G. D. (1977b). Experimental analysis of embryogenesis of cerebellum in rat. II. Morphogenetic malformations following X-irradiation on day 18 of gestation. J. Comp. Neurol., 176, 435-452.
Jain Narendra & A. L. Bhatia (2006). Low Level β-Exposure from HTO on the Development of Cerebellum in Mice. Abstract published in J. Rafsanjan Univ. Medical Sci., Summer 2006, Vol. 5, No. 2. 1st Int. HLR conference, Oct. 29–31, 2006, Tehran, Iran.
Jain Narendra & A. L. Bhatia (2007). Neurobiological risks due to tritiated water exposure assessed against bulk tritium release from nuclear industry. 13th International conference of radiation research, San Francisco, USA, July 8-12, 2007, p. 46.