Trajectories of technogenic tritium in the Rhône River (France)
2020
Morereau, Amandine | Lepage, Hugo | Claval, David | Cossonnet, Catherine | Ambrosi, Jean-Paul | Mourier, Brice | Winiarski, Thierry | Copard, Yoann | Eyrolle, Frederique | Laboratoire de recherche sur les transferts des radionucléides dans les écosystèmes aquatiques (IRSN/PSE-ENV/SRTE/LRTA) ; Service de recherche sur les transferts et les effets des radionucléides sur les écosystèmes (IRSN/PSE-ENV/SRTE) ; Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN)-Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) | Laboratoire d'étude et d'expertise sur la radioactivité de l'environnement (IRSN/PSE-ENV/SEREN/LEREN) ; Service d'expertise et d'étude en radioprotection des populations et de la radioactivité dans l'environnement (IRSN/PSE-ENV/SEREN) ; Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN)-Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) | Laboratoire de métrologie de la radioactivité dans l'environnement (IRSN/PSE-ENV/SAME/LMRE) ; Service d'analyses et de métrologie de l'environnement (IRSN/PSE-ENV/SAME) ; Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN)-Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) | Centre Européen de Recherche et d'Enseignement des Géosciences de l'Environnement (CEREGE) ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE) | Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés (LEHNA) ; Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL) ; Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière (M2C) ; Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN) ; Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rouen Normandie (UNIROUEN) ; Normandie Université (NU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | ANR-11-LABX-0010,DRIIHM / IRDHEI,Dispositif de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les Interactions Hommes-Milieux(2011)
(IF 2.67; Q2)
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Show more [+] Less [-]English. Tritium is a radioisotope of hydrogen with a half-life of 12.32 years and was used for its luminescent properties by the watchmaking industry from 1962 to the 2008. Tritiated luminescent salts were integrated in the paints applied on the index and dial of watches and clocks. French and Swiss watchmaking workshops used more than 28 000 TBq of tritium over this period of time and produced almost 350 million watches. Despite the end of tritiated salts use in watchmaking workshops in 1992 in France and 2008 in Switzerland, high level of organically bound tritium (OBT) are still observed in sediments of the Rhône River downstream the Lake Geneva. Contamination of the Rhône River by tritiated hot particles since 1962 up to nowadays remains poorly documented. In order to assess the long term behavior and fate of technogenic tritium in this river and its trajectories in the river system, two sediment cores were collected at the upstream (UC) and downstream (DC) part of the Rhône River in France and OBT contents were determined. For both sedimentary cores, maximum OBT contents were registered over the 1980s when tritium was intensively used by watchmaking industries. These residual OBT contents are 1 000 to 10 000 fold higher than current natural background levels in riverine sediments. The OBT contents progressively decreased since 1989 with close effective half-life in upstream and downstream area (5 ± 2 years). The OBT contents were lower in DC than in UC due to the dilution by uncontaminated sediments delivered by tributaries not affected by the watchmaking industries. Trajectories analysis indicates that the resiliency of the Rhône River system in regards to this contamination would be reached in 14 to 70 years and in 14 to 28 years respectively for the upstream and downstream part of the river.
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