Tritium studies

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen produced naturally from the interaction of cosmic rays. It is also a by-product of nuclear power generation, including in Canada’s fleet of CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactors. This has allowed Canada to develop considerable expertise in the research and management of tritium.

Tritium Studies Project

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has studied tritium extensively. In January 2007, the Commission directed CNSC staff to initiate research studies on tritium releases in Canada, and to study and evaluate the practices of Canadian tritium processing facilities with respect to international standards. In response, the CNSC led several research initiatives as part of the Tritium Studies Project, which has helped shape Canadian regulatory oversight of tritium processing and tritium releases.

The following studies and documents resulted from the Tritium Studies Project:

• Tritium Studies Project: Health Effects of Tritium
• Standards and Guidelines for Tritium in Drinking Water
• Investigation of the Environmental Fate of Tritium in the Atmosphere
• Tritium Releases and Dose Consequences in Canada in 2006
• Evaluation of Facilities Handling Tritium
• Tritium Activity in Garden Produce from Pembroke in 2007 and Dose to the Public
• Health Effects, Dosimetry and Radiological Protection of Tritium
• Tritium Studies Project Synthesis Report
  • Implementation of Recommendations from the Tritium Studies Synthesis Report
• Environmental Fate of Tritium in Soil and Vegetation

Other Canadian research

The CNSC continues to support and participate in tritium research through its internal research and support program and through research activities funded under the Federal Nuclear Science and Technology Plan The following are some examples of Canadian tritium research and reports published since 2011.

Year published	Title	Academic journal or conference
2023	Tritium across the hydrologic systems of southern Ontario, Canada: implications for groundwater age dating in the Great Lakes Basin	Hydrogeology Journal
2022	Emergency response implications of tritium in CANDU severe accidents	Annals of Nuclear Energy
2022	A pilot study of radiation-induced bystander effect in radio-adapting frogs at a radiologically contaminated site located on the chalk river laboratories property	International Journal of Radiation Biology
2022	Evaluation of 137Cs, 133Xe and 3H activity concentrations monitored in the Arctic atmosphere	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity,
2022	Determination of the baseline tritium concentrations (HTO, TFWT and OBT) in soil and plants in Ontario, Canada	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity,
2021	COHERE – strengthening cooperation within the Canadian government on radiation research	International Journal of Radiation Biology
2021	Tritium in Laurentian Great Lakes surface waters	Journal of Great Lakes Research
2021	Experimental investigation of D2 conversion to DHO in soil near the Cernavoda nuclear power plant site in Romania	Applied Radiation and Isotopes
2020	Fate and transport of tritium in the Laurentian Great Lakes system	Journal of Great Lakes Research
2019	Correlated responses for DNA damage, phagocytosis activity and lysosomal function revealed in a comparison between field and laboratory studies: Fathead minnow exposed to tritium	Science of the Total Environment
2019	Cellular Responses to Tritium Exposure In Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss) reared in tritiated water and/or fed organically bound tritium	Applied Radiation and Isotopes
2019	Distribution of organically bound tritium (OBT) activity concentrations in aquatic biota from eastern Canada	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2019	Organically bound tritium (OBT) activity concentrations in surface soil at the Chalk River Laboratories, Canada	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2018	In vivo animal studies help achieve international consensus on standards and guidelines for health risk estimates for chronic exposure to low levels of tritium in drinking water*	Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis
2018	Independent environmental monitoring and public dose assessment around the Canadian nuclear power plants*	Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
2018	Feedback of the third interlaboratory exercise organised on wheat in the framework of the OBT working group	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2018	Permafrost thaw and implications for the fate and transport of tritium in the Canadian north	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2018	Cytogenetic damage analysis in mice chronically exposed to low-dose internal tritium beta-particle radiation	Oncotarget
2018	Tritium in fish from remote lakes in northwestern Ontario, Canada	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2018	A new reference material for tritium organic molecules in sediment: Results of an international intercomparison exercise	Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research
2017	Role of tritiated hydrogen in formation of HTO and OBT in soil and vegetation in vicinity of a tritium processing facility*	4th International Conference on Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity
2017	International standards on food and environmental radioactivity measurement for radiological protection: Status and perspectives	Radiation Protection Dosimetry
2017	Characteristics of the combustion water of organically bound tritium (OBT) measurements of fish samples	Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
2017	Effects of in situ exposure to tritiated natural environments: A multi-biomarker approach using the fathead minnow, Pimephales Promelas	Science of the Total Environment
2017	A new bomb-combustion system for tritium extraction	Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
2017	Role of soil-to-leaf tritium transfer in controlling leaf tritium dynamics: Comparison of experimental garden and tritium-transfer model results*	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2016	Cellular responses to tritium exposure in rainbow trout: HTO- and OBT-spiked feed exposure experiments	CNL Nuclear Review
2016	Evaluation of long term environmental tritium reemissions following reactor shut-down	3rd Canadian Conference on Nuclear Waste Management, Decommissioning and Environmental Restoration
2016	Biological effects of tritium on fish cells in the concentration range of international drinking water standards	International Journal of Radiation Biology
2016	Changes in HTO and OBT activity concentrations in the Perch Lake aquatic ecosystem	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2016	Field testing and intercomparison of advanced tritium transfer models*	11th International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology
2016	Tritium dynamics in soils and plants grown under three irrigation regimes at a tritium processing facility in Canada*	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2016	Tritium – Competitive reaction in cyclotrons F-18 production – Regulatory implications*	Meeting of the Task Force on Shielding Aspects of Accelerators, Targets and Irradiation Facilities
2015	Higher tritium concentrations measured in permafrost thaw lakes in northern Alberta	Hydrological Processes
2015	Organically bound tritium analysis in environmental samples	Fusion Science and Technology
2015	Tritium uptake in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): HTO and OBT-spiked feed exposures simultaneously	Applied Radiation and Isotopes
2015	OBT analysis method using polyethylene beads for limited quantities of animal tissue	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2015	In situ measurements of tritium evapotranspiration (3H-ET) flux over grass and soil using the gradient and eddy covariance experimental methods and the FAO-56 model*	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2015	Canadian inter-laboratory organically bound tritium (OBT) analysis exercise	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2014	Tritium dynamics in soils and plants at a tritium processing facility in Canada*	3rd International Conference on Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity
2014	Levels of tritium in soils and vegetation near Canadian nuclear facilities releasing tritium to the atmosphere: Implications for environmental models*	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
2012	Tritium, health effects and dosimetry*	Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology
2011	Review of the knowledge available to date on the effects of tritium exposure on health and the environment in Canada – A tool to guide regulatory compliance monitoring*	Radioprotection
2011	Tritium releases from Canadian nuclear facilities – Synthesis and associated controls*	Tritium seminar between the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the University of Ottawa and the Institut de Radioprotection et Sûreté Nucléaire

*Indicates contributions from CNSC researcher

General inquiries

cnsc.info.ccsn@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca
Telephone: 613-995-5894 or
1-800-668-5284 (toll-free in Canada and the U.S.)
Fax: 613-995-5086

Related links

• Tritium overview
• Ask the CNSC about tritium