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There appears to be a large shortage of helium-3
(decay product of tritium) to make neutron detectors, in order to detect
smuggling of nuclear bombs.
"Mr. Miller estimated that demand for helium 3 was about 65,000 liters per
year through 2013 and that total production by the only two
countries that produce it in usable form, the United States and Russia,
was only about 20,000 liters. In a letter to President
Obama, he called the shortage “a national crisis” and said the price had
jumped to $2,000 a liter from $100 in the last few years, which threatens
scientific research.
Is this a business opportunity for the
Darlington Tritium Removal Facility? It's easy to separate helium-3
from tritium.
Jerry
P.S. In the early 1970s, I made and sold
high-efficiency helium-3 detectors (gridded ion chambers) for fast neutron
spectrometry, including one to McMaster University. (It's still being used
in research there.)
----- Original Message -----
From: Whitlock, Jeremy
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 5:24 PM
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] CNSC responds to Sierra Club misinformation on
tritium UNRESTRICTED | ILLIMITÉ FYI, on Friday the CNSC issued a news release that responds quite candidly to misinformation spread by the Sierra Club on the health effects of tritium: "Junk Science: Sierra Club of Canada Misleads the Public" http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/mediacentre/releases/news_release.cfm?news_release_id=360 Jeremy Whitlock |