Natural Tritium Measurements by Ethane Counting

Journal/Book: Reprinted from Science August 25 1951 Vol. 134 No. 3478 pages 552-553. 1951;

Abstract: Department of Chemistry University of California San Diego La Jolla California Copyright (r) 1961 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Abstract. A method is described for the synthesis of ethane from hydrogen that is at present used for the counting of low-level tritium activity at the La Jolla tritium laboratory. The reaction procedure is simple and involves the mixing of the hydrogen with acetylene over a colloidal palladium catalyst. Counting characteristics of ethane are found to be ideal. With a 1-Liter counter filled to three atmospheres of ethane only a tenfold tritium enrichment is necessary in order to obtain a sensitivity of 0.32 counts per minute per tritium unit.

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