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Heavy Water
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Has heavy water any relationship in a hydro electricity plant and could the water in this instance be used time and time again.Also can this water i.e heavy be converted cheaply to fresh water. ?
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The hydrogen atom is normally an electron going around a proton. Sometimes though you get a neutron in there in which case it's called Deuterium.
Water is 2 atoms of hydrogen and one oxygen. If you use Deuterium rather than hydrogen you have heavy water.
Heavy water is chemically the same as normal water. You can drink it or water your flowers with it and nobody need glow in the dark. In fact you do every day about 1 water molecole in 3000 is heavy water.
It is however much denser than normal water and is used in some nuclear reactors as what is called a moderator to make them work efficiently. It's not used as a fuel.
The relationship with hydroelectric power goes back to WWII - the Nazis were trying to build an atomic bomb which meant they needed a nuclear reactor and that meant they wanted heavy water.
Seperating heavy water from normal water needs a lot of electricity and heavy machinery so they did it in Norway where there was plenty of hydroelectric power and there was a raid designed to destroy this facility and there was a film about it "the heroes of Telemark"
Water is 2 atoms of hydrogen and one oxygen. If you use Deuterium rather than hydrogen you have heavy water.
Heavy water is chemically the same as normal water. You can drink it or water your flowers with it and nobody need glow in the dark. In fact you do every day about 1 water molecole in 3000 is heavy water.
It is however much denser than normal water and is used in some nuclear reactors as what is called a moderator to make them work efficiently. It's not used as a fuel.
The relationship with hydroelectric power goes back to WWII - the Nazis were trying to build an atomic bomb which meant they needed a nuclear reactor and that meant they wanted heavy water.
Seperating heavy water from normal water needs a lot of electricity and heavy machinery so they did it in Norway where there was plenty of hydroelectric power and there was a raid designed to destroy this facility and there was a film about it "the heroes of Telemark"
I think it may be taking things a bit far to refer to heavy water as "chemically the same" as normal water - chemically indistinguishable might be a better phrase.
Heavy Water is a compound of an isotope of hydrogen called deuterium(D) combined with oxygen. Deuterium has an atomic mass of 2, as against 1 for normal hydrogen (H) due to presence of an extra neutron in the nucleus. The formula of heavy water is therefore D2O as opposed to H2O for normal water.
Because of these differences, heavy water should not be referred to as "chemically the same as normal water". The only similarities are between the chemical properties of the two compounds.
We do indeed drink heavy water each day as it is what you might call an impurity in conventional water.
However, it is incorrect to state that heavy water is "much denser" than conventional water. At 25 degrees C, heavy water has a density of 1.1056 grams per millilitre as opposed to 0.9982 for conventional water.
This means that in practice, if you poured heavy water into one tumbler and conventional water into another, no-one would be able to tell which tumbler contained the heavy water. On an industrial scale, it would also be very difficult to detect the difference in density unless one was looking for it with specialised equipment.
We've got a chemistry lecturer here at uni who's enjoyed baffling students for many years by freezing heavy water into cubes and dropping them into a glass of ordinary water. The cubes sink like a brick.
Heavy water boils at 101.42 degrees C and melts at 3.81 degrees C. It is also very slightly more alkaline than neutral conventional water.
Heavy Water is a compound of an isotope of hydrogen called deuterium(D) combined with oxygen. Deuterium has an atomic mass of 2, as against 1 for normal hydrogen (H) due to presence of an extra neutron in the nucleus. The formula of heavy water is therefore D2O as opposed to H2O for normal water.
Because of these differences, heavy water should not be referred to as "chemically the same as normal water". The only similarities are between the chemical properties of the two compounds.
We do indeed drink heavy water each day as it is what you might call an impurity in conventional water.
However, it is incorrect to state that heavy water is "much denser" than conventional water. At 25 degrees C, heavy water has a density of 1.1056 grams per millilitre as opposed to 0.9982 for conventional water.
This means that in practice, if you poured heavy water into one tumbler and conventional water into another, no-one would be able to tell which tumbler contained the heavy water. On an industrial scale, it would also be very difficult to detect the difference in density unless one was looking for it with specialised equipment.
We've got a chemistry lecturer here at uni who's enjoyed baffling students for many years by freezing heavy water into cubes and dropping them into a glass of ordinary water. The cubes sink like a brick.
Heavy water boils at 101.42 degrees C and melts at 3.81 degrees C. It is also very slightly more alkaline than neutral conventional water.
Judging by experiments performed on certain plants and animal species, I doubt that you'd want to be drinking heavy water for any length of time. It has chemical properties that are quite distinguishable from normal water, which is what one would expect because the O-D bond length is appreciably longer than the O-H bond length. It is this difference in bond length and, thus, bond strength, that accounts for the differing properties.
Amongst other properties of heavy water are the facts that tadpoles can survive in it nor can seeds germinate in it.
Ageing in simple terms, is caused by accumulated damage to DNA, which in turn, affects the cell's ability to reproduce and function. Heavy water is known to harm telomeres (regions of DNA at the end of chromosomes). These telomeres in effect act as "caps" on the end of chromosomes preventing "fraying" and fusion with other chromosomes.
Shortened telomeres can cause the DNA to unfold leading to what is called cellular senescence - they go into "sleep mode" - because the cell mistakenly considers that major DNA cellular damage has occured. Eventually the cells will die off leading to multiple organ damage and death.
Because of this, as shammydodger says, ingestion of heavy water should be avoided.
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Ageing in simple terms, is caused by accumulated damage to DNA, which in turn, affects the cell's ability to reproduce and function. Heavy water is known to harm telomeres (regions of DNA at the end of chromosomes). These telomeres in effect act as "caps" on the end of chromosomes preventing "fraying" and fusion with other chromosomes.
Shortened telomeres can cause the DNA to unfold leading to what is called cellular senescence - they go into "sleep mode" - because the cell mistakenly considers that major DNA cellular damage has occured. Eventually the cells will die off leading to multiple organ damage and death.
Because of this, as shammydodger says, ingestion of heavy water should be avoided.
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