Tritium

tritium (trĭt`ēəm), radioactive isotope of hydrogen with mass number 3. The tritium nucleus, called a triton, contains one proton and two neutrons. It has a half-life of 12.5 years and decays by beta-particle emission. The symbol is T or ³H. It is one form of heavy hydrogen, the other being deuterium. It is usually produced in nuclear reactors as a byproduct of the irradiation of lithium. Its current major use is to increase the yield of thermonuclear devices. The U.S. Department of Energy has a production reactor in Savannah, Georgia for this purpose. In the future, vast amounts of tritium will fuel experiments in fusion research. Canada, Europe and Japan have extensive programs underway to develop physics-based, as opposed to mechanical based, production procedures to generate the volumes necessary to proceed with these experiments.

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tritium

Isotope of hydrogen, chemical symbol written as ³H or T, with atomic number 1 but atomic weight approximately 3. Its nucleus contains one proton and two neutrons. Tritium is radioactive (see radioactivity), with a half-life of 12.32 years. Its occurrence in natural water in an amount 10⁻¹⁸ that of ordinary hydrogen is believed to be due to the action of cosmic rays. Some tritium is used in self-luminous materials (e.g., for watch dials) and as a radioactive tracer in chemical and biochemical studies. Nuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium at high temperatures releases enormous amounts of energy. Such reactions have been used in nuclear weapons and experimental power reactors. See also heavy water.

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tritium

a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, occurring in trace amounts in natural hydrogen and produced in a nuclear reactor. Tritiated compounds are used as tracers. Symbol: T or ³H; half-life: 12.5 years

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tritium [′trid·ē·əm]

(nuclear physics)

The hydrogen isotope having mass number 3; it is one form of heavy hydrogen, the other being deuterium. Symbolized³H; T.

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Tritium 

(T, or ³H), a radioactive isotope of hydrogen with mass number 3 (hence its name, from the Greek tritos, “third”).

Tritium was discovered in 1934 by the British scientists E. Rutherford, M. L. Oliphant, and P. Harteck. The tritium nucleus consists of one proton and two neutrons. Tritium is β-active, with a half-life of 12.26 yr. In nature, it is formed in in-significant quantities by the action of the neutrons of cosmic rays on nitrogen atoms (¹⁴₇N + n = ³₁T + ¹²₆C) and in nuclear transformations induced by high-energy cosmic particles. The mean content of tritium in natural waters is one atom per 10¹⁸ atoms of !H.

Tritium is obtained in nuclear reactors by irradiation of ⁶₃Li with neutrons (⁶₃Li + n = ³₁T + ⁴₂He). It is used as the most important component in thermonuclear synthesis reactions, as a fuel in thermonuclear bombs, and in chemical, biological, and hydrological studies.

REFERENCE

Evans, E. A. Tritii i ego soedineniia. Moscow, 1970. (Translated from English.)