Triton

1. Greek Mythology. A god of the sea, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, portrayed as having the head and trunk of a man and the tail of a fish.
2. The satellite of Neptune that is seventh in distance from the planet.

[Latin Trītōn, from Greek.]

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The nucleus of ²₁H (tritium); it is the only known radioactive nuclide belonging to hydrogen. The triton is produced in nuclear reactors by neutron absorption in deuterium (²₁H + ¹₀n → + γ), and decays by β⁻ emission to ³₂H with a half-life of 12.4 years. Much of the interest in producing ³₁H arises from the fact that the fusion reaction ³₁H + ¹₁H → ⁴₂H releases about 20 MeV of energy. Tritons are also used as projectiles in nuclear bombardment experiments. See also Nuclear reaction; Tritium.