Talk:Light water

Comments

I think there is an error in the way this article appeared originally. Heavy water is not H₂O₂; rather, that is hydrogen peroxide. Heavy water and "light" water are both H₂O. The difference is not a chemical difference but rather it is in the nucleus of an atom.

I have no chemistry beyond high-school, so I could be wrong. But I'm willing to bet 50 cents on this one. Michael Hardy 01:18 Jan 16, 2003 (UTC)

I have no chemistry beyond high school either... but I agree with you. I would bet $50 on that one :) Enchanter

You are both correct. -- Tarquin 13:12 Jan 16, 2003 (UTC)

Iran

Why don't they make Iran build a light water nuclear power station so they don't get weapons grade plutonium, in fact why don't all the oil producing countries save the oil for critical purposes for which there is no obvious alternative to oil.

http://english.people.com.cn/200605/17/eng20060517_266269.html --Anthony5429 15:29, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't it that light water reactors require enriched fuel rather than produce it and then a country would need to enrich radioacitve material for use as fuel (or bombs)?

It isn't strictly true that light water reactors require enriched fuel, but it makes it a lot easier mainly because the absorption cross section of deuterium for the low-energy neutrons that cause fission in U235 is several times smaller than that of regular hydrogen. In particular, our article on North Korea's nuclear weapons program implies that their light water reactors do require enriched fuel, and are probably incapable of producing energy otherwise. An interesting example of nuclear reactor using light water and natural uranium was the Oklo reactor, but not that back when it was around, the U235 concentration was about 4 times what it is now. I imagine it has probably been done since then as a proof of concept, but not commercially. -Wiccan Quagga 17:10, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Merge

The Light water page should be Merged to the Light water reactor page, for the simple reason that the term "light water" is used for Water and has no context outside of Light water reactors. The merge is a simple matter of transferring information and changing this page to a redirect. 24.126.199.129 08:00, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Sigh. No. That is not how you merge pages. What a mess... -LlywelynII (talk) 09:57, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Fire fighting foam

I keep seeing references to "light water" in NTSB reports on airplane crashes an I've seen it labeled on firetrucks at airports so please don't remove my addition to this page for lack of notability. Rsduhamel (talk) 16:22, 7 September 2013 (UTC)