What is heavy water? what does it do and what does it differ from light water?

Answer 1

Regular water (they don't really call it light water) is just H2O, but heavy water replaces the normal hydrogen atoms with deuterium, which is an isotope of hydrogen with an extra neutron stuck to it. This comes about from exposure of a hydrogen atom to neutron radiation, which can come from natural cosmic radiation (which is why there is a very small percentage of the ocean that is heavy water) or proximity to a neutron source like uranium (where we typically get it, because it's formed during normal operation of a nuclear reactor). It's called "heavy" water because those extra neutrons add weight without really adding any volume; it doesn't change the properties of the water any other than it's mass and the fact that it's slightly radioactive (over time, deuterium will decay back to normal water and allow that neutron to go zinging off somewhere else... I think it has about a seven year half life, if I remember correctly)

Heavy water can be used in plutonium production reactors to produce both plutonium from uranium and a small amount of tritium from deuterium. Because deuterium has a slightly different magnetic moment from that of hydrogen, it can be used in nuclear magnetic resonance imaging when the primary focus is hydrogen -- you can differentiate the signals you get. Because it's essentially water, and is not a very strong source of radioactivity, it's also good for biological intake and absorption studies -- you can track where it goes in the body. And since deuterium and tritium can fuse under intense pressure and temperature into helium, releasing a lot of energy as the two extra neutrons are annihilated to provide binding energy, it is used in fusion energy research and in thermonuclear weapons.

Answer 2

Heavy water is deuterium oxide
Regular water is hydrogen oxide (H2O)

Deuterium is a heavy hydrogen atom or a stable isotope of hydrogen that has not just one proton but a proton and a neutron at its nucleus. So it is almost twice as heavy as hydrogen.

Similarly we also have tritium. If thought that this one had 1 proton and 2 neutrons you were correct. Tritium combined with oxygen will also form heavy water (or should we call it a supper heavy water?)

Maybe chemically deuterium and hydrogen are analogous however I would not advise drinking heavy water :). If you thought that heavy water was a good candidate for medium in nuclear reactors to slow down fast netrons that again you were correct.

Answer 3

Heavy water contains at least one atom of deuterium, replacing simple hydrogen. Deuterium is chemically the same as hydrogen, but the atomic nucleus contains one neutron in addition to one proton. The boiling point and freezing point of heavy water differ slightly from those of normal water. Heavy water is used in some nuclear reactors because it has a smaller tendency than normal water to absorb neutrons, so a reactor using the stuff as a moderator can run using raw (rather than enriched) uranium. Heavy water is present in small amounts in all water, and can be separated by electrolysis. If we can figure out how to use heavy water as a fuel for thermonuclear reactors, the world will have an energy supply that will last almost indefinitely.

Answer 4

There are three different isotopes of hydrogen, they all have one proton and one electron, but the number on neutrons differ.
Hydrogen with no neutrons is just called hydrogen.
Hydrogen atoms with 1 neutron are called deuterium.
Hydrogen atoms with 2 neutrons are called tritium.

Heavy water is just regular water (H2O) with one of the hydrogen atoms replaced with a deuterium atom.

Deuterium atoms do not absorb neutrons as easily at hydrogen atoms. This is advantageous in some nuclear reactor designs. In a reactor you want neutrons, because they are what cause fissions of U atoms, if you add water to the reactor you add some hydrogen which will absorb some neutrons. By using heavy water you can decrease the number of neutrons absorbed.
No power reactors in the US use heavy water but Canada's CANDU reactor does.

Answer 5

There are three isotopes of hydrogen: regular hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium. Regular hydrogen only has a proton in the nucleus, deuterium has a proton and a neutron, and tritium has a proton and two neutrons. All the isotopes have one electron orbiting the nucleus. Chemically, all the isotopes are essentially the same with the only differences being from the different masses (neutrons are heavy).

Regular water is H_2 O, so it has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Heavy water is D_2 O, and has two deuterium atoms and one oxygen. It is also possible to have DOH, TOH, TOD, and T_2 O where the T represents tritium.

Heavy water is often used in nuclear facilities where the extra neutron helps to slow the neutrons from the reactor. it is also often used in chemistry where the extra mass of the deuterium causes slight differences in the vibrations of molecules which can be picked up and analyzed. This can help in determining chemical structure. Tritium is not often used because it is radioactive.

Answer 6

Heavy water is H2O just like any other water, except that the hydrogen atoms are isotopes of hydrogen having two (deuterium) or three neutrons instead of none.. More neutrons increase the atomic mass but not the nuclear properties of the heavy water. It is used to cool down reactors because it absorbs more heat than regular water.

Answer 7

Heavy water contains at least one atom of Deuterium (Hydrogen with one proton and one neutron, instead of just one proton). It is used primarily in nuclear reactors as a coolant and neutron moderator. It is more effective as a neutron moderator than light water.

Answer 8

Heavy water is water that has been used to cool Uranium, Plutonium or Deuterium in nuclear power plants, and itself has become irradiated... gaining an extra ion, becoming an isotope, hence the name 'Heavy'

There is no such thing as 'light water'

Answer 9

Light Water or normal water that you drink has two atoms of Hydrogen and one of oxygen. thats why it is called H2O. Heavy Water has two atoms of Deuterium and one of Oxygen i.e. D2O. deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen. the hydrogen atom has one proton and no nucleons in its nucleus whereas deuterium has two protons and no nucleons in its nucleus. heavy water is used in the nuclear industry for extrating heat from the nuclear reactor. it is very expensive (more than $450 per liter [although not confirmed] the last i heard and that was about seven years ago. ) i dont know the exact advantage of using heavy water there but it also has other uses.

Answer 10

it consists of at least one duteriaum atom. duterium is same as hidragon, but one nutron more. More nutrons dont trouble its properties, but its specific weight is high.
Although it doesnt matter for normal chemical reactions, it matters for nuclear reactions. That is why D2O is used to extract the nutrons in the nuclear chain reactions to control the reaction speed. We have D2O in normal water, but in very small quantities.