Analysis of an internal kinetic model for free and bound tritium.

Internal dosimetry models that currently drive regulatory compliance decisions assume that tritium retention kinetic behavior can be modeled by a single exponential function. This is contrary to the results of a number of modeling techniques, which indicate that while elemental tritium (HT) and tritiated water (HTO) are the most commonly released forms of tritium, organically-bound tritium (OBT) doses can be quite significant. In this paper, a unified two-compartment model of the retention kinetics of HTO and OBT is examined for the purpose of investigating the importance of metabolic routes not considered in the ICRP one- and two-exponent models; namely the transfer of tritium from the HTO compartment to the OBT compartment and vice versa. In particular, the effect of intake ratio is investigated, and a detailed analysis of dosimetric implications is performed. For typical combined intakes of HTO and OBT, the number of disintegrations from the two tritium forms can be roughly equal. This result, when combined with the suggested greater biological effectiveness of OBT, indicates effective doses will be greater than those obtained from a single exponential model. The results of this study corroborate previous findings using the two-compartment model for the cases of HTO-only and or OBT-only intakes and compare well with data taken from studies on animals and human subjects.