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Human exposure risk via algae-induced transfer of tritiated water in the marine food chain

Nature Sustainability volume 9, pages 153–163 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Understanding the health impact of human radiation exposure from tritiated water release is crucial for the management and sustainability of nuclear energy. However, it remains not fully explored owing to the neglect of bioconversion products (organically bound tritium, OBT) along the food chain. Here by evaluating the uptake and chemical transfer of tritium in biota, we show the critical role of algae in rapidly incorporating and transferring tritiated water into OBT, which serves as nutrients for trophic transfer to fish. Notably, the specific retention of OBT in the fish brain, by integrating into biomolecules, potentially disrupts key metabolic reactions. The derived concentration factors and biomagnification factors are instrumental in estimating the internal exposure dose to human individuals, thereby enabling more accurate risk assessments for both planned tritium releases and accidental leakages. This work highlights the importance of comprehensive evaluation and mitigation of tritium exposure risks.

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Fig. 1: HTO organification by algae.
Fig. 2: The enrichment and transfer of 3H through exposure of HTO or 3H-algae (tritiated D. salina) to brine shrimp.
Fig. 3: The enrichment and transformation of 3H through exposure of HTO or 3H-brine shrimp (tritiated brine shrimp) to medaka.
Fig. 4: Blending of 3H in amino acids.

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All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Information files. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22125602, 22341601, 22076078 and U2067215) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (021114380082).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Shipeng Dong, Kun Lu, Yu Miao.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Chemistry and Biomedicine Innovation Center, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Shipeng Dong, Kun Lu, Yu Miao, Pengfei Xue, Liangliang Zhang & Liang Mao

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China

    Kun Lu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Fengmei Cui, Juan Diwu, Zhifang Chai & Shuao Wang

  4. School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Yanxu Zhang

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Contributions

L.M. conceptualized and planned the project. S.D., K.L., Y.M., P.X. and L.Z. carried out figure preparation, the main experiments and data interpretation. S.D. and Y.Z. performed the model establishment. S.D. and Y.M. wrote the manuscript, with input from all authors. F.C., S.W., J.D. and Z.C. reviewed and supervised the manuscript. All authors analysed results and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Liang Mao.

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Supplementary Results and Discussion, Figs. 1–12 and Table 1.

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Dong, S., Lu, K., Miao, Y. et al. Human exposure risk via algae-induced transfer of tritiated water in the marine food chain. Nat Sustain 9, 153–163 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01669-8

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