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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
Franz Baumgärtner
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 787-790
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Biology, Health, and Radiation | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1038
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The energy balance of hydrogen isotopes in H bonds of water and biomolecules results in accumulative tritium transfer from water into biomolecules. Tests of DNA dissolved in tritiated water and of maize or barley hydroponically grown in tritiated water confirm the increase. The primary hydration shell of DNA shows an accumulation factor of ~1.4, and the exchangeable hydrogens inside DNA show ~2. Logistic growth analyses of maize and barley reveal the intrinsic growth rates of tritium 1.3 and 1.2 times larger than that of hydrogen. The higher rate of tritium than hydrogen incorporation in solid biomatter is caused by the hydration shells, which constitute an intrinsic component of biomolecules.