Where does tritium come from?
Tritium is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere when cosmic rays strike air molecules. Tritium is also produced during nuclear weapons explosions, as a byproduct in reactors producing electricity, and in special production reactors, where the isotope lithium-6 is bombarded to produce tritium. What are the properties of tritium? Tritium is a hydrogen atom that has 2 neutrons in the nucleus, in addition to its single proton, giving it an atomic weight near 3. Although tritium can be a gas, its most common form is in water, because, like non-radioactive hydrogen, radioactive tritium reacts with oxygen to form water. Tritium replaces one of the stable hydrogens in the water molecule, H2O, and is called tritiated water. Like H2O, tritiated water is colorless and odorless. Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years and emits a very weak beta particle. The key words here are “very weak” – the beta particles are unable to penetrate even thin layers of solid material and are easily stopped by
