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Tritium (from Ancient Greek τρίτος (trítos) 'third') or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or 3 H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life ~12.3 years. The tritium nucleus (t, sometimes called a triton) contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of the common isotope hydrogen-1 (protium) contains one proton and no neutrons, and that of non-radioactive hydrogen-2 ...
Tritium is routinely released into the ocean from operating nuclear power plants, sometimes in much greater quantities. For comparison, the La Hague nuclear processing site in France released 11,400 TBq of tritium in the year of 2018. In addition, about 60,000 TBq of tritium is produced naturally in the atmosphere each year by cosmic rays.
The more tritium is initially placed in the tube, the brighter it is to begin with, and the longer its useful life. Tritium exit signs usually come in three brightness levels guaranteed for 10, 15, or 20-year useful life expectancies. [5] The difference between the signs is how much tritium the manufacturer installs.
Deuterium has one neutron in the nucleus and tritium has two. Under the right conditions, deuterium and tritium each will lose an electron and fuse to form one helium atom with two protons and two ...
It is unknown how much tritium entered the river because samples were not taken at the leak time. The NRC is investigating to find the source of the leak. [14] [15] [16] Tritium is a very low level beta emitter with an approximate half-life of 12.3 years and it cannot penetrate the outer dead layer of skin. The main concern with this isotope is ...
It is produced in small amounts in nature (about 4 kg per year globally) by cosmic ray interactions in the upper atmosphere. Tritium is considered a weak radionuclide because of its low-energy radioactive emissions (beta particle energy up to 18.6 keV). [28] The beta particles travel 6 mm in air and only penetrate skin up to 6 micrometers.
Although tritium is volatile and biologically active, the health risk posed by a release is much lower than that of most radioactive contaminants, because of tritium's short half-life (12.32 years) and very low decay energy (~14.95 keV), and because it does not bioaccumulate (it cycles out of the body as water, with a biological half-life of 7 ...
Assuming a density of 114 grams per cubic metre (0.192 lb/cu yd) at $100/l helium-3 would be about a thirtieth as expensive as tritium (roughly $880 per gram ($25,000/oz) vs roughly $30,000 per gram ($850,000/oz)) while at $2000/l helium-3 would be about half as expensive as tritium ($17,540 per gram ($497,000/oz) vs $30,000 per gram ($850,000 ...