Gratifying progress in the application of “Research and Development of Working Tubes for the Oxidation of Tritium in Marine Organisms”

Recently, the researches of Dr. Lin Feng, from the Laboratory of Marine Isotopic Technology and Environmental Risk Assessment, have been published by The Journal of Environmental Radioactivity with the title of "A Method for the Determination of Duty-bound Tritium in Marine Biota Based on an Improved Tubular-combustion System" The paper is the achievement of the project "Research and Development of Working Tubes for The Oxidation of Tritium in Marine Organisms", with its related patent “A New Working Tube for Organically Bound Tritium Samples in the Marine Environment” being authorized.

Earlier this month, a prototype developed from the patent has been presented at the 7th Xiamen Marine Science and Technology Achievements Transformation Symposium, recognized by industry experts and enterprises. At the same time, the marine industry standard "Analysis Method of Organically Bound Tritium in Marine Biota Based on a Tubular-combustion System" applied by the equipment was also approved, indicating that the achievement has made gratifying progress in application and transformation.

It is difficult to remove the tritium in the nuclear power emission system. The emission of tritium increases year by year, and with the transfer of the food chain, it will accumulate in organisms, eventually harming marine biota. However, there has been no specific measurement method and equipment for tritium in marine biota. To meet this demand, Dr Lin Feng adopts the design idea of an independent three-temperature section and two-end ventilation mode for research and development, which solves the problem that gas flow instability forms sample gas counterflow during ventilation and affects combustion efficiency.

The equipment and method passed the relevant tests in the 6^th International Group on OBT Analysis from April to July 2019. At present, the achievement has been applied to numerous background radiological survey projects in the adjacent sea areas of nuclear power plants. This application has provided relevant technical support for marine radiation environmental impact assessment, and contributed to a more scientific governance method for creating a good marine ecological environment.

This research was supported by the joint project of Xiamen Ocean Research and Development Institute (K191301), the National Key Research and Development Project (2016YFF0103905), and the Fujian Provincial Social Development Guiding Project (2020Y0081).

marine organically bound tritium oxidized combustion equipment and working tube