Why deuterium is used in nuclear power plants?

Answer 1

Deuterium is the isotope of hydrogen with a nucleus of one proton and one neutron. It occurs naturally in water to a small concentration. The main use at present is as heavy water, which is deuterium oxide ( equivalent to H2O), which is used as a moderator in heavy water reactors, like the CANDU type. Experiments in nuclear fusion use deuterium as a fuel, along with tritium, which is another hydrogen isotope, and if these experiments are ever successful enough to build a fusion power plant this will become a major use for it. Luckily there is a large amount in all the earth's waters.

Answer 2

A hydrogen bomb is made up of a fission bomb, like the ones dropped at the end of WWII, and lots of deuterium around it. When the fission bomb explodes, the deuterium undergoes a fusion reaction that releases far more energy than the fission bomb released.

Answer 3

Deuterium is not used in nuclear power plants, as a fuel, that is. Generally, uranium, plutonium, or thorium is used. This is because these heavier elements release energy during a fission reaction. The lighter elements, such as deuterium and tritium release energy during a fusion reaction, but we have not yet perfected a stable, controlled means to do that.

However, there are fission power plants that use heavy water, deuterium-oxide, D2O, instead of ordinary water, H2O, as the neutron moderator. An example is the CANDU, "CANadian Deuterium-Uranium", designed in Canada, as an alternative to the light water (H2O) moderated designs that the US and many other countries use.

The reason for this is that the light water design requires an enrichment of the uranium to raise the percentage of uranium-235 from its naturally occurring level of about 0.7% to about 4% or 5%, whereas the heavy water design can use unenriched uranium, at 0.7% uranium-235. This is because the light water, in addition to moderating fast neutrons to thermal neutrons necessary to sustain criticality, also tends to absorb neutrons, leaving too few to sustain criticality unless the enrichment level is higher than 0.7%. In the heavy water design, moderation still takes place, but less absorption occurs, allowing use of only 0.7% uranium-235.

Answer 4

Having only one proton deuterium has the atomic number 1, as hydrogen; but because deuterium has also and a neutron, the atom is different compared to the atom of hydrogen. Consequently deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen with the Atomic Mass 2.