I quoted Robert Machacek:
In operational Candu power reactors worldwide, the average specific
activity of tritium in the moderator systems is 10^7 micro-Ci/kg, or
about 100 million times greater than virgin or 'natural' heavy
water. The typical specific tritium concentration in research
reactors is 10^6 micro-Ci/kg. . . ."
He goes to on to say:
"It is entirely likely that uninformed purchaser of heavy water could
obtain a natural heavy water product with deuterium concentration
ranging from 99 atom % to 99.99 atom % and a specific tritium
activity ranging from 0.001 micro-Ci/kg to 400 micro-Ci/kg . . .
Typical moderator water would have to be diluted by 10 million to 100
million times until it would be suitable for a non-nuclear market.
This is obviously not practical. The authors suggestion that this is
done to create a commercially viable product is pure nonsense. Use
moderator water can often be resold, but only to other reactor
operators. In addition, when reusing old moderator water, tritium can
be the least of your worries; long live alpha and gamma emitters can
be the primary concern and must be removed. This further adds to the
implausibility of trying to convert use moderator water into salable
non-nuclear product. Ontario Hydro dominates the world's nuclear
market for heavy water and the world's non-nuclear wholesale market,
and we have never attempted to use diluted, clean up old moderator
water for our non-nuclear markets. . . ."
I assume Beene's comments about "slave labor" was a joke, albeit in
somewhat poor taste, because in recent weeks an actual slave labor
scandal has erupted in China. Needless to say, slave laborers can do
skilled labor, such as making bricks, as they do in China and India.
In the US, slaves constructed the US Capitol building and the White
House, and during the Civil War they mined and smelted much of the
iron used in the Confederacy, in Alabama. (Dozens of them died in the
harsh conditions. See:
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2007/07/09/lewistraining2.html)
But I doubt we will ever see high-tech skilled slave-labor in a
laboratory, other than graduate students of course, and they not
slaves because they actually *pay* to work.
- Jed
