D2O-Tritium

[Lester.Slaback@nist.gov]

Normal commercial sources of D2O have tritium levels of
E-3 to E-4 uCi/ml.  So even if all the body water was replaced by this D2O
the dose due to the tritium would be negligible.

D2O from other sources, e.g., CANDU reprocessing, can have
substantially higher tritium levels because their primary concern is the
D/H ratio, and the source of their D2O is irradiated D2O that has a higher
H3 concentration than natural sources.  But even there the H3
concentration is less than 1 uCi/ml.

-- 
the above are the personal musing of the author,
and do not represent any past, current, or future
position of NIST, the U.S. Government, or anyone else
who might think that they are in a position of authority.
NBSR Health Physics
NIST
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
301 975-5810
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Lester.Slaback@nist.gov
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