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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 a half-life of ~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 ...
Tritium decays into helium-3 with a half-life of 12.3 years, so helium-3 can be produced by simply storing the tritium until it undergoes radioactive decay. As tritium forms a stable compound with oxygen (tritiated water) while helium-3 does not, the storage and collection process could continuously collect the material that outgasses from the ...
A significant amount of zirconium is formed by the fission process; some of this consists of short-lived radionuclides (95 Zr and 97 Zr which decay to molybdenum), while almost 10% of the fission products mixture after years of decay consists of five stable or nearly stable isotopes of zirconium plus 93 Zr with a halflife of 1.53 million years ...
Tritium is a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 12.355 years. Its main decay product is helium-3 , which is among the nuclides with the largest cross-section for neutron capture. Therefore, periodically the weapon must have its helium waste flushed out and its tritium supply recharged.
The sum of the atomic mass of the two atoms produced by the fission of one fissile atom is always less than the atomic mass of the original atom. This is because some of the mass is lost as free neutrons, and once kinetic energy of the fission products has been removed (i.e., the products have been cooled to extract the heat provided by the reaction), then the mass associated with this energy ...
The decay chain from lead-212 down to lead-208, showing the intermediate decay products. In this example: 234 Th, 234m Pa,..., 206 Pb are the decay products of 238 U. 234 Th is the daughter of the parent 238 U. 234m Pa (234 metastable) is the granddaughter of 238 U. These might also be referred to as the daughter products of 238 U. [1]
Tritium excretion can be accelerated further by increasing water intake to 3–4 liters/day. [11] Direct, short-term exposure to small amounts of tritium is mostly harmless. If a tritium tube breaks, one should leave the area and allow the gas to diffuse into the air. Tritium exists naturally in the environment, but in very small quantities.
This is particularly challenging for circulating designs, in which a mix of isotopes and their decay products circulate through the reactor. Static designs benefit from modularising the problem: the fuel salt is contained within fuel pins whose regular replacement, primarily due to neutron irradiation, is normalized; while the coolant salt has ...