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From: George Huxtable (no email)
Date: Mon Nov 10 2003 - 20:01:37 EST
Jared Sherman sought to implicate Tritium in seawater as a possible reason
for glow at the ocean surface. I disagreed, and asked for a reference.
He replied-
>Well George, I suggest you can start with
>http://www.srs.gov/general/news/newpub-rel/factsheets/tdw.pdf
>
>That information is presented by the US Savannah River (Nuclear) Site.
>They seem to be under the same misimpression that I am, i.e. that some
>tritium does occur naturally in ground water. If it occurs naturally in
>ground water, it will also be present in sea water, as almost all water
>runs into the seas, one way or another, even if it has to evaporate and
>rain down a few times or be metabolized and passed to get there.
==================
I don't suppose that this is a question that's of pressing interest to
Nav-l members, so I will make it snappy.
The website attributes natural Tritium to cosmic rays, just as I pointed
out in my earlier posting, stating "In nature, cosmic rays interact with
gases in the upper atmosphere to produce Tritium". That is the only natural
source. The quantities in seawater from that source are infinitesimal.
The website (from Savannah River Site -SRS) states "Tritium oxide is found
in the wastewater from the site's chemical separation facilities and in
some SRS groundwater". Nowhere does it attribute Tritium in groundwater to
"natural occurrence". Being a large-scale producer of Tritium for bomb
making, presumably the vast majority of the groundwater contamination at
SRS arises from that activity, rather than "occurring naturally" as Jared
claims.
There's no easy way of distinguishing Tritium oxide from any other form of
water, and no way to remove it from the Savannah River, downstream of the
plant, as the website accepts. However, such downstream water is abstracted
for public drinking water supplies, and the website claims that these are
perfectly safe for drinking, being well within regulatory limits (well,
they would, wouldn't they?).
Eventually, the water from this one river will be discharged into the
ocean, where it will become immemsely diluted. And after 12 years of ocean
residence, half of this activity will have disappeared anyway.
So any notion that this will result in the oceans acquiring sufficient
Tritium to glow in the dark is quite absurd: otherwise, how brightly would
the Savannah River itself be glowing in the dark, or the water that flows
from the taps of Savannah residents?
And Jared doesn't question my statement that Tritium itself doesn't glow,
anyway.
I hope this has put Jared's notion into perspective.
George.
================================================================
contact George Huxtable by email at , by phone at
01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
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