tritium, radioactive isotope of hydrogen with mass number 3. The tritium nucleus, called a triton, contains one proton and two neutrons. It has a half-life of 12.5 years and decays by beta-particle emission. The symbol is T or ³H. It is one form of heavy hydrogen, the other being deuterium. It is usually produced in nuclear reactors as a byproduct of the irradiation of lithium. Its current major use is to increase the yield of thermonuclear devices. The U.S. Department of Energy has a production reactor in Savannah, Georgia for this purpose. In the future, vast amounts of tritium will fuel experiments in fusion research. Canada, Europe and Japan have extensive programs underway to develop physics-based, as opposed to mechanical based, production procedures to generate the volumes necessary to proceed with these experiments.

Isotope of hydrogen, chemical symbol written as ³H or T, with atomic number 1 but atomic weight approximately 3. Its nucleus contains one proton and two neutrons. Tritium is radioactive (see radioactivity), with a half-life of 12.32 years. Its occurrence in natural water in an amount 10⁻¹⁸ that of ordinary hydrogen is believed to be due to the action of cosmic rays. Some tritium is used in self-luminous materials (e.g., for watch dials) and as a radioactive tracer in chemical and biochemical studies. Nuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium at high temperatures releases enormous amounts of energy. Such reactions have been used in nuclear weapons and experimental power reactors. Seealso heavy water.

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