TRITIUM CONCENTRATION IN JAPANESE RICE

Polished rice samples harvested in 1985 were collected from 25 prefectures throughout Japan. Concentrations of both tissue free water tritium (TFWT) and organically bound tritium (OBT) were determined. Nearly uniform distribution of the TFWT and OBT concentrations was observed in Japan, taking into account a relatively large counting error. The average values for Japanese polished rice were 2.69 +/- 0.74 Bq/L for the TFWT concentration, 2.01 +/- 0.78 Bq/L for the OBT concentration and 0.83 +/- 0.32 for the specific activity ratio. The TFWT concentration was within the range of tritium concentration of the land water reported by other researchers. The specific activity ratio below unity also confirmed by analyses of the 4 Chinese polished rice samples suggests that OBT in the rice is not equilibrated with TFWT or HTO in the environment because of isotope discrimination.