Contribution of tritium to the committed effective dose to members of the public living in the Mayak PA monitoring area

Introduction. The paper presents data on the contribution of tritium to the radiation dose to members of the public living in the Mayak PA monitoring area.

Materials and methods. Water from central water supply, wells, boreholes, surface reservoirs, locally produced foodstuffs, atmospheric air, and urine were studied in members of the population. Air sampling was carried out by moisture adsorption on NaX zeolite followed by moisture extraction, measurements of tritium specific activity in liquid media were carried out by the liquid scintillation method.

Results. The annual committed effective dose from tritium intake with drinking water and locally produced foodstuffs was (0.5±0.2) µSv/year, which coincides with the annual committed effective dose estimated from tritium content in urine. Consumption of drinking water from local sources was the largest contributor (about 65%) to tritium intake. The contribution of tritium to the total annual committed effective dose to members of the population from the main dose-forming radionuclides was on average 2%.

Limitations are related to the fact that the selected environmental objects are located close to the industrial site, thus the results of the study allow judging the radiation situation only in the area limited by the facility’s monitoring area.

Conclusion. Although the contribution of tritium to the committed effective dose to members of the population due to current discharges from the Mayak PA is 2%, tritium is one of the radionuclides that determine the total committed effective dose to the population (at least 99%), which makes it necessary to provide tritium monitoring in the facility’s monitoring area. Particular attention should be paid to drinking water supply sources.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study does not require a biomedical ethics committee opinion. All participants gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study.

Contribution:
Barchukov V.G. – research concept and design, structuring of the article;
Ushakov I.B. – research concept and design, editing;
Murashova E.L. – research concept and design, material collection and data processing, text writing;
Maksimov A.A. – data processing, text writing;
Sibirkin A.V. – material collection and data processing;
Kabanov D.I., Lizunov V.Yu. – data processing, editing;
Polskaya M.K. – data processing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study was carried out as part of the state assignment ‘Development of a system for control of tritium content in various media, code “Trek-1”, registration number: АААА-А19-119031190033-1.

Received: April 10, 2025 / Revised: July 7, 2025 / Accepted: December 2, 2025 / Published: March 13, 2026

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