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D2O (was C14 Decay rates)



At 05:19 AM 12/11/01, Larry wrote:
Jim Green wrote:
> >If you perform electrolysis on a liter of tap water, by time you
> >get down to 35 mL remaining you theoretically should have nearly
> >pure H-2 H20 (or D2O). It should have a mass substantially greater
> >than 35 grams;
> This is an interesting statement: Does this mean that tap water is 3.5%
> D2O by volume??? It must be late at night and I am missing something.

That should have been *1000 liters* (not 1000 mL) of distilled tap water
to yield 35 mL of D2O.

....

For Uranium isotopes apparently the reaction rate ratio is so small that
separation by reaction rate is not feasible, so the diffusion technique
is used.

Best wishes,

Larry


More nit-picking:
heavy water is found at concs of 1:7000 in domestic water.
(It has a higher boiling point than H2O, so I imagine specifying distilled
tap water would somewhat enrich it.)

1 kg of tap water would include 1/7 g of D2O then.
That's about 143 mg. If the electrolysis sacrificed 3% of the D2O along
with 97% of the H2O, one would have about 127 mg D20 remaining
per kg domestic water, not 35 mg when 99.95% purity is obtained.

Diffusion separation of Uranium isotopes is now superceded by
chemical means, which according to some rumblings, is ridiculously easy.



Brian Whatcott
Altus OK Eureka!