Development of a practical tritiated water monitor to supervise the discharge of treated water from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Sanada, Yukihisa; Oshikiri, Keisuke*; Kanno, Marina*; Abe, Tomohisa

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 1062, p.169208_1 - 169208_7, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2024.169208

As part of the decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP), the release of stored treated water began in 2023. In this study, we developed a practical tritium monitor to continuously monitor the concentration of tritiated water, as confirmed by batch sampling measurements at the FDNPP. The monitor is arranged with a flow cell detector comprising inexpensive plastic scintillator pellets and incorporating simultaneous measurements by three detectors, a veto detector, and lead shielding to reduce the influence of environmental -rays. The system reached a detection limit of 911 Bq L-1 with a measurement time of 30 min, which is lower than the discharge standard for tritiated water of 1,500 Bq L-1. The system can also qualitatively distinguish the presence of disturbances due to interfering radionuclides other than tritium or background radiation using the -ray spectrum.