Recovery of tritium obtained as a by-product in the production of fluorine-18

For samples of irradiated natural and enriched (95%) Li₂CO₃, normal distillation to dryness of the alumina column eluates permits recuperation of approximately 80% of the tritium. The distilled samples were concentrated by electrolysis and a subsequent vacuum distillation resulted in a tritium enrichment of the order of 30%. The enriched samples were used to prepare sealed, calibrated sources, with different levels of tritium radioactivity, to be used as standards for the determination of tritium in unknown samples using liquid scintillation.