Tritium from Ecosystem to Man - Study of mechanisms and constants that govern equilibrium and different pathways

Tritium is the radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It can be integrated in most of the biological molecules. Even if its radiotoxicity is weak, effects of tritium could be increased if it can concentrate in some critical compartments of beings. In order to better understand the tritium circulation in the environment and highlight constants of transfer between compartments, we have studied the tritiation of different agricultural matrices chronically exposed to tritium. The first step of our study is the validation of the different techniques used to prepare our sample. We have also demonstrated that it was possible to store environmental samples in the Valduc centre and have underlined some biases due to the extraction of free water. Some ways of improvements are proposed. A hypothesis has also been formulated on the origin of an original isotopic fractionation effect during the extraction of the free water of milk. In the environmental study, the specific activities measured on plants confirm the importance of the atmospheric exposure on their tritiation. No difference in the tritiation has been measured between wheat, barley and colza. Some differences have been measured in the tritiation of some organic components of vegetal matrices. These results underline the interest of continuing this kind of study. We have also compared the tritiation of the main hydrogenated components of milk,first, component to component, then, sample to sample. Some origins of the measured differences have been shown. We have demonstrated the correlation between the specific activities of drinking water and the free water of milk as between the tritiations of dry matter of cattle's food and of the main organic components of milk. Our results show also the importance of the metabolism on the distribution of tritium in the different compartments. The overall synthesis of our results show the importance of the dilution of hydrogen in the considered environmental compartments, above the isotopic effects, even in a food chain chronically exposed to tritium.