Deuterium neutron moderator

Neutron irradiation of silicon, 22 487 of vitreous silica, 22 435 Neutron moderators, deuterium application, 8 460... 

The extraction of deuterium from natural water feed forms an excellent case study of the application of large scale distillation and exchange distillation to isotope separation. The principal historical demand for deuterium has been as heavy water, D20, for use in certain nuclear reactors. Deuterium is an excellent neutron moderator, and more importantly, it has a low absorption cross section for slow neutrons. Therefore a reactor moderated and cooled with D20 can be fueled with natural uranium thus avoiding the problems of uranium isotope enrichment. This was the... 

It was detected by Urey, Brickwedde and Murphy in 1932. It occurs in all natural compounds of hydrogen including water, as well as in free hydrogen molecules at the ratio of about one part per 6,000 parts hydrogen. The principal application of deuterium is in tracer studies for measuring rates and kinetics of chemical reactions. It also is used in thermonuclear reactions and as a projectile in cyclotrons for bombardment of atomic nuclei to synthesize isotopes of several transuranium elements. Deuterium oxide, D2O, or heavy water is used as a neutron moderator in nuclear reactors. 

Choice of neutron moderator-light water (protium), heavy water (deuterium), liquid (sodium metal), or solid (graphite) Except in the case of graphite, the moderator also serves as the coolant. In the case of a graphite moderator, gas (He or C02) is used as a coolant. 

USE To study chemical reaction rates and mechanisms. The cross section of deuterium for the capture of thermal neutrons is very low which makes it useful, in the form of heavy water> as a neutron moderator in nuclear reactors. Produces a considerable decrease in neutron energy per collision. 

When used in place of hydrogen, deuterium or (sometimes designated as D) results in water approximately 10 percent denser than normal. Termed "heavy water," D O is harmless in small doses and can therefore be used safely as a tracer in the body, most commonly in measuring a subject s metabolic rate. Heavy water is also used as a neutron moderator, meaning it is able to slow neutrons by collisions without absorbing them.This process is crucial for the chain reaction in nuclear reactors, where fast neutrons are produced by the fission process, but slow or thermal neutrons are more likely to induce fission. 

Hydrogen is also important in fuel production. Hydrocracking uses the partial pressure of hydrogen gas to break down complex organic molecules, and forms by-products such as ethane, aromatics, and jet fuels. Liquid hydrogen is also used as a rocket fuel. In fission-based nuclear reactors, heavy water (where deuterium replaces regular hydrogen) is used as a neutron moderator. 

Hydrogen occurs naturally in three isotopes. The most common ( H) accounting for more than 99.98% of hydrogen in water, consists of only a single proton in its nucleus. A second, stable isotope, deuterium (chemical symbol D or H), has an additional neutron. Deuterium oxide, D2O, is also known as heavy water because of its higher density. It is used in nuclear reactors as a neutron moderator. The third isotope, tritium, has 1 proton and 2 neutrons, and is radioactive, decaying with a half-life of 4500 days. T2O exists in nature only in minute quantities, being produced primarily via cosmic ray-induced nuclear reactions in the atmosphere. Water with one deuterium atom HDO occurs... 

Deuterium is used as a moderator to slow down neutrons. Tritium atoms are also present but in much smaller proportions. Tritium is readily produced in nuclear reactors and is used in the production of the hydrogen (fusion) bomb. It is also used as a radioactive agent in making luminous paints, and as a tracer. 

Tritium is produced in heavy-water-moderated reactors and sometimes must be separated isotopicaHy from hydrogen and deuterium for disposal. Ultimately, the tritium could be used as fuel in thermonuclear reactors (see Fusionenergy). Nuclear fusion reactions that involve tritium occur at the lowest known temperatures for such reactions. One possible reaction using deuterium produces neutrons that can be used to react with a lithium blanket to breed more tritium. 

The only large-scale use of deuterium in industry is as a moderator, in the form of D2O, for nuclear reactors. Because of its favorable slowing-down properties and its small capture cross section for neutrons, deuterium moderation permits the use of uranium containing the natural abundance of uranium-235, thus avoiding an isotope enrichment step in the preparation of reactor fuel. Heavy water-moderated thermal neutron reactors fueled with uranium-233 and surrounded with a natural thorium blanket offer the prospect of successful fuel breeding, ie, production of greater amounts of (by neutron capture in thorium) than are consumed by nuclear fission in the operation of the reactor. The advantages of heavy water-moderated reactors are difficult to assess. 

Production in Heavy Water Moderator. A small quantity of tritium is produced through neutron capture by deuterium in the heavy water used as moderator in the reactors. The thermal neutron capture cross section for deuterium is extremely small (about 6 x 10 consequendy the... 

Heavy water [11105-15-0] 1 2 produced by a combination of electrolysis and catalytic exchange reactions. Some nuclear reactors (qv) require heavy water as a moderator of neutrons. Plants for the production of heavy water were built by the U.S. government during World War II. These plants, located at Trad, British Columbia, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Savaimah River, South Carolina, have been shut down except for a portion of the Savaimah River plant, which produces heavy water by a three-stage process (see Deuterium and tritium) an H2S/H2O exchange process produces 15% D2O a vacuum distillation increases the concentration to 90% D2O an electrolysis system produces 99.75% D2O (58). 

Metallic Solid type of solid characterized by delocalized electrons and metal atoms occupying lattice points Metalloid elements have properties intermediate between metals and nonmetals Mixture combination of two or more substances where the individual substances maintain their identity Moderator a material such as graphite or deuterium used to slow down neutrons in nuclear reactors... 

Fig. 25. Series of towers comprising part of the heavy water production plant at Ontario Hydro s Bruce nuclear power complex near Tiverton on the shores of Lake Huron. Heavy water is a clear, colorless liquid that looks and tastes like ordinary water. It occurs naturally in ordinary water in the proportion of approximately one part heavy water to 7000 parts of ordinary water. While ordinary water is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen (H20), heavy water (D.-1.0) is made of up of deuterium—a form, or isotope, of hydrogen—and oxygen. Deuterium is heavier than hydrogen in that it has an extra neutron in its atomic nucleus, so heavy water weighs about 10% more than ordinary water. It also has different freezing and boiling points. It is the extra neutron that makes heavy water more suitable than ordinary water for use in CANDU nuclear reactors as both a moderator and a heat transport medium. (Ontario Hydro, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)...

The major use of D20 is as a moderator for neutrons in nuclear reactors. Because the deuterium atom is small, neutrons colliding with it cause the deuterium atom to recoil so that more energy is absorbed than would be if the atom did not recoil. Thus, heavy water... 

Separated isotopes have played an important role in the production of nuclear power and in the development of nuclear energy. The importance of separated isotopes in this field can be seen at once by considering the thermal neutron cross sections of those isotopes which have become important in the nuclear industry. A few of these are given in Table I. The very small neutron absorption cross section of deuterium, compared with protium, together with its excellent moderating power, has made heavy water a very important reactor moderator. has found wide-... 

The physical properties of isotopes differ slightly because of differences in atomic mass. For example, water that contains deuterium is called heavy water because the neutrons in deuterium add mass to the water molecule. Some nuclear reactors use heavy water to help keep the chain reaction going. The heavy water slows down (or moderates) the neutrons produced during nuclear fission so that they can be absorbed by the uranium fuel. You will learn more about nuclear reactions in Chapter 25. 

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