Due to their low energy compared to other beta particles, the amount of Bremsstrahlung generated is also lower. Beta particles from tritium can penetrate only about 6.0 millimetres (0.24 in) of air, and they are incapable of passing through the dead outermost layer of human skin. The electron's kinetic energy varies, with an average of 5.7 keV, while the remaining energy is carried off by the nearly undetectable electron antineutrino. It decays into helium-3 by beta decay as per this nuclear equation:Īnd it releases 18.6 keV of energy in the process. While tritium has several different experimentally determined values of its half-life, the National Institute of Standards and Technology lists 4,500 ± 8 days ( 12.32 ± 0.02 years). Willard Libby recognized that tritium could be used for radiometric dating of water and wine. However, their experiment could not isolate tritium, which was accomplished in 1939 by Luis Alvarez and Robert Cornog, who also realized tritium's radioactivity. Deuterium is another isotope of hydrogen. Tritium was first detected in 1934 by Ernest Rutherford, Mark Oliphant and Paul Harteck after bombarding deuterium with deuterons (a proton and neutron, comprising a deuterium nucleus). 7.3.3 Tritium in hydrogen bomb secondaries.
Tritium is also used as a nuclear fusion fuel, along with more abundant deuterium, in tokamak reactors and in hydrogen bombs.
It is used in a medical and scientific setting as a radioactive tracer. Tritium is used as the energy source in radioluminescent lights for watches, gun sights, numerous instruments and tools, and even novelty items such as self-illuminating key chains. It can be produced artificially by irradiating lithium metal or lithium-bearing ceramic pebbles in a nuclear reactor and is a low-abundance byproduct in normal operations of nuclear reactors. The atmosphere has only trace amounts, formed by the interaction of its gases with cosmic rays. Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare on Earth.
The nucleus of tritium (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 zero neutrons, and that of hydrogen-2 ( deuterium) contains one proton and one neutron. Tritium ( / ˈ t r ɪ t i ə m/ or / ˈ t r ɪ ʃ i ə m/, from Ancient Greek τρίτος (trítos) 'third') or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or 3H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen.
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