Fate and transport of tritium in the Laurentian Great Lakes system

A mass balance modelling approach was used to help understand the movement and impacts of tritium discharged from Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactor facilities into Lake Ontario. A concentration-time model, previously developed, is updated in this study. Historical and projected tritium concentrations for Lake Ontario waters are presented. A model calculated accident scenario (10 times highest accidental release) indicates the importance of dilution to the dispersion of tritium; a “modelled” release in 2016 has tritium levels declining by the year 2030 to “previous 2016 levels”. As part of the mass balance approach, lake-bottom sediments were considered as potential radionuclide “sinks”. Tritium porewater results were noted as perturbations at depth in both short (30–50 cm cores) and long sediment core profiles (to 300 cm). These change in tritium concentrations with depth may have been due to CANDU emissions (as the most likely source) over time, based on records of accidental releases of tritiated coolant water. However, the exact process (advection and/or diffusion) responsible for the penetration of tritium into the lake bottom requires additional physical and hydrogeological characterization of the lake bottom sediments.