PC 19-60: supply of a tube furnace

The ILL has a laboratory for preparing and analysing samples it takes from the environment .It also has the necessary authorisations from the French nuclear safety authority (ASN) to take radioactivity measurements as part of the French national radiation monitoring network. The ILL also has 4 off-site environmental monitoring stations at various locations in the Grenoble area, which provide continuous radioactivity monitoring, as well as a number of sampling points. Among these samples taken, the ILL wishes to analyse organically bound tritium (OBT) in biological samples The purpose of this call for tender is to purchase a tube furnace, which will allow ILL to prepare sample with a view to determining OBT activity concentrations. The ILL wishes to purchase a tube furnace in order to implement the protocol for the preparation of fresh samples. In order to implement this protocol, a fresh sample must first be available for dehydration by freeze-drying (lyophilisation). The ILL has all the equipment needed to carry out this freezedrying process. The dehydrated sample is then placed in a quartz boat and insert to a first heating unit, which triggers combustion. The following organic and inorganic samples are concerned: • Grasses, • Agricultural produce (corn, lettuce), • Fish, • Aquatic plants, • Soils, sediments. The combustion gases are then transferred to a second heating unit, where they are oxidised. A cold trap is used to recover the water vapor from the combustion gases and to condense this vapor. After measuring the pH, the water collected is neutralised to between pH6 and pH8.The water obtained is the distilled and measured by liquid scintillation counting.