What is heavy water?

Heavy water is water containing a higher proportion of deuterium isotopes (deuterium), either deuterium oxide, D ₂ O or ²H2O, or deuterium protium oxide, HDO or H¹H²O.

Heavy water can contain as much as 100% D2O, and usually the term refers to water in which the deuterium has a high percentage. Isotope replacement by deuterium transforms the binding energy of hydrogen bonding in water, leading to changes in the physical, chemical and especially biological properties of pure or highly enriched water. Deuterium to a greater degree than is found in the majority of chemical compounds is replaced by isotopes.

Heavy water should not be confused with hard or super heavy water.

You need normal water to live, but you may have wondered if you can drink heavy water? There is radiation? Is it safe?

Its physical and chemical properties are almost similar to those of water (H2O), except that one or both of the hydrogen atoms are deuterium hydrogen isotopes instead of regular isotope protium . It also called water deuterated or D ₂ O . While the nucleus of a Protium atom consists of a single proton, the nucleus of the deuterium atom contains both a proton and a neutron. This makes the deuterium roughly twice as heavy as Protium, but it is non radioactive. Therefore, heavy water is not radioactive . So if you drink heavy water, you don't need to worry about radiation poisoning.

If you drink too much heavy water , the symptoms of heavy water resemble radioactive poisoning, even though heavy water is not radioactive. This is because both radiation and heavy water damage the cells' ability to repair their DNA and replicate.

Ultra-heavy water (water containing tritium isotopes of hydrogen) is also a form of heavy water. This is heavy radioactive water. It is also rarer and more expensive. It is naturally produced (very rare) by cosmic rays and humans in nuclear reactors.