Tritium generated in a mercury target is a source of potential exposure of personnel at high-energy accelerator facilities. Knowledge of the chemical form of tritium is necessary to estimate the internal doses. We studied the tritium generation upon thermal neutron irradiation of a mercury target modified into liquid lithium amalgam to examine the ratio of tritiated water ([(3)H]H(2)O) and tritiated hydrogen ([(3)H]H(2)). The ratio between [(3)H]H(2)O and [(3)H]H(2) generated in lithium amalgam was 4:6 under these experimental conditions.
Ratio of tritiated water and hydrogen generated in mercury through a nuclear reaction. Publishing Authors By Initials