Overview

Discharges from nuclear installations are subject to regulatory requirements established by various regulatory bodies. Rigorous control of the discharges is implemented by the facility operations within the framework of water and air discharge permits. This control is carried out from commissioning of the installation and throughout its entire lifetime. The decommissioning of these nuclear installations also generates liquid and gaseous effluents that should be characterized and quantified before their discharge. This document presents the methods and provisions for sampling tritium and carbon‑14 in the gaseous effluents generated by nuclear facilities during operation and decommissioning. Specifically included are sample withdrawal location, extraction, transport flow measurement, and collection for later analysis. This document doesn't address to real time measurements of tritium activity and carbon-14 activity in the effluent air of stacks and ducts. Information about real time measurements can be found in DIN ISO 2889 (VDE 0493-1-2889):2024-04, Annex H. ISO 20041-1 covers the sampling methods or techniques for tritium and carbon‑14. The future ISO 20041-2 will cover activity analysis of tritium and carbon-14 sampled by the bubbling technique and the future ISO 20041-3 will cover the activity analysis of tritium and carbon-14 sampled by molecular sieve.

Responsible national committee

DKE/GK 851 - Aktivitätsmessgeräte für den Strahlenschutz  

Responsible international committee

ISO/TC 85/SC 2/WG 14 - Air control and monitoring