Heavy Water
Heavy water, formally called deuterium oxide or 2H2O or D2O, is a form of water that contains the hydrogen isotope deuterium, rather than the common protium isotope. The colloquial term heavy water is often also used to refer a highly enriched water mixture that contains mostly deuterium oxide but also contains some ordinary water molecules as well: for instance heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction. In comparison, in ordinary water, there are only about 156 deuterium atoms per million hydrogen atoms).
Read more about Heavy Water.
Some articles on heavy water:
... In August 1940, Döpel showed the utility of using heavy water as a moderator in a research nuclear reactor ("Uranmaschine") together with his wife Klara ... geometry (hollow spheres) of uranium surrounded by heavy water ... the spherical geometry, with five metric tons of heavy water and 10 metric tons of metallic uranium, could sustain a fission reaction ...
... Already in 1941, Tronstad was aware that heavy water production at Vemork had greatly increased ... In the beginning, Tronstad had not been aware of the connection between heavy water and atomic weaponry, but it eventually became clear that Germany could be running a nuclear energy project, especially after ... from Jomar Brun that further expansion of heavy water production was being discussed ...
... career, Tronstad penned about eighty scientific publications, including fourteen on heavy water-related topics ... The properties of heavy water had been discovered in 1932 by Harold Urey ... the head of Norsk Hydro Rjukan, created a plan for industrial production of heavy water in Norway ...
... Some is created in heavy water moderated reactors when deuterium captures a neutron ... fluxes, or with a very high proportion of heavy water to nuclear fuel and very low neutron absorption by other reactor material ...
... at the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1936, he was also among the pioneers of heavy water research, and was instrumental when a heavy water plant was built at Vemork ... sources, both on the development of the V-2 rocket and the growing German interest in heavy water ... planned Operation Gunnerside, in which the German access to heavy water processing at Vemork was severely impeded ...
Famous quotes containing the words water and/or heavy:
“It is the work of a brave man surely, in whom there was no guile! He rounded this water with his hand, deepened and clarified it in his thought, and in his will bequeathed it to Concord. I see by its face that it is visited by the same reflection; and I can almost say, Walden, is it you?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Whenas the Chill Sirocco blowes,
And Winter tells a heavy tale;
When Pyes and Dawes and Rookes and Crows,
Sit cursing of the frosts and snowes;
Then give me Ale.”
—Thomas Bonham (d. 1629?)