[Monitoring the tritium content in waste waters and objects in the surroundings of Soviet nuclear power plants]

As illustrated by experimental data on Rovenskaya atomic power plant (APP) the sources of tritium release into environment have been assessed. The studies show that about 70% of tritium vaporize through cooling towers and the remaining quantity is discharged into the Styr river. In the nearest future it becomes necessary to study tritium discharge from APP equipped with reactors of various types in more detail and analyze its migration path in food chains. Thus it will be possible to specify the contribution of this nuclide into the dose load on the population living near APP. It is demonstrated that under existing levels of tritium content in environment objects (up to 5 Bq/l) it can be quite accurately measured by means of modern sensitive scintillators without preliminary separation.