ven Tevet

acerity Ge

x

The individual contributors to exposure cannot be readily summed except
in the form of radiation dose.

This has not been done in the present case but

the summary from the 1966 report of UNSCEAR is included here as table 16.
Generali Notes
The numerical values have been rounded off sometimes even beyond the rounding done in the original compilation.

Since the values are intended to represent

the average over large areas there is little meaning to using more than one
oth
of
gil

rir
omp

significant figure.

In many cases it has been necessary to convert the units

from those of the original compilation and in a few cases it has been necessary
to calculate values from basic handbook information.

Those calculations relating

to man are all on the basis of a 70 kg standard man with 2800 grams of skeletal
ash.

Tritium (Table 1)
rac
La
4

Natural tritium is produced in the atmosphere by cosmic ray bombardment at
the rate of 0.5 to 0.6 atoms/sec per om*.

This corresponds to an annual producticr

rate of about 2500 pCi/m@ of the earth's surface.

been estimated at 70 to 65 megacuries.

The equilibrium inventory has

The complete assessment of the environment

had not been finished at the start of thermonuclear weapons testing and the data
are not completely firm.
Since tritium is produced in the stratosphere, the highest natural concentrations are in atmospheric hydrogen, water vapor and in precipitation.

Older

waters such as those from the deep oceans and deep wells have extremely iow

concentrations while surface waters from the continents and the ocean are intermediate.

The specific activity of natural tritium in man is generally lower

than surface waters.

Select target paragraph3