Why is “heavy water” used in nuclear energy, are not potable to drink, even it’s just 1 molecule more than H2O?
In: Chemistry
Heavy water doesn’t contain an extra molecule, water is a molecule. Heavy water contains an extra Neutron in at least one if its hydrogen atoms.
Heavy water or D2O is a water molecule where one of the atoms of Hydrogen is Heavy Hydrogen or Deuterium (hence the D in D2O).
Deuterium has 1 extra neutron compared to Protium (basic hydrogen) that contains no neutrons.
1 molecule in 3,200 of water is D2O, meaning that much of your body and the water you drink is D2O and you wouldn’t be aware of it unless someone told you.
Drinking large quantities of D2O for a prolonged period can cause dizziness and low blood pressure, but this is highly unlikely outside of a lab setting.
Heavy water is used as a moderator in some reactors because it slows down neutrons effectively and also has a low probability of absorption of neutrons.
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