What are the waste products from a deuterium and tritium fusion reaction?

[GTrax]

@wrexhamseadog

Goodness - this thread is more than a year old!
Even so, I mention that in explanations given me by a doctor concerning my child's asthma; he said that the body urge to gasp a breath is driven more by the CO2 concentration in the lungs, and not by the need for oxygen. A full lungful of an inert gas (Argon, whatever) that does not take part in the exchange to increase the CO2 can leave one asphyxiating, unable to breath unassisted.

Thankfully, my child now grown up, no longer suffers asthma, having learned to not to inadvertently hyperventilate (ie. over-breathe) as a norm.

All inert gases are suffocants! The warnings MUST be heeded. They can cause loss of consciousness and death in confined areas. They must be used with caution!

 

[wrexhamseadog]

@wrexhamseadog

Goodness - this thread is more than a year old!
Even so, I mention that in explanations given me by a doctor concerning my child's asthma; he said that the body urge to gasp a breath is driven more by the CO2 concentration in the lungs, and not by the need for oxygen. A full lungful of an inert gas (Argon, whatever) that does not take part in the exchange to increase the CO2 can leave one asphyxiating, unable to breath unassisted.

Thankfully, my child now grown up, no longer suffers asthma, having learned to not to inadvertently hyperventilate (ie. over-breathe) as a norm.

All inert gases are suffocants! The warnings MUST be heeded. They can cause loss of consciousness and death in confined areas. They must be used with caution!

Yes, the urge to breathe is determined by the Conc. of CO2 in the lungs, that is the 'URGE'
to take a breath. But what I am merely stating, is that, one does not need an urge to breathe to asphyxiate. One can breathe in pure nitrogen, and the eventual high saturation of which, sends the person into a sleep due to lack of oxygen and eventually, the major organs shut down. The asphyxiation can be caused by any gas, inert or reactive. All I am saying is really, that inert gases just take the place of the oxygen to asphyxiate, the more reactive gases actually make biological changes to the bodily functions, which can cause distress and pain, however, I previously mentioned Nitrogen, which isn't inert, but is very unreactive!There was actually a campaign to use nitrogen as a gas for execution in the US! It is the lack of oxygen that causes us to asphyxiate, as we, as well as virtually every other life form (that we know of) need oxygen to survive.
In the bloodstream, Oxygen combines with the haemoglobin. As the Conc. of CO2 in the persons lungs increases, so, naturally, does the Conc. in the bloodstream. The CO2 binds differently to the haemoglobin, and takes the place of oxygen, hence the asphyxiation, however, any other gas, e.g. helium (trying to get back to the original thread topic here!) simply displaces the oxygen. If we breathed in pure helium, we would asphyxiate, because we are breathing no oxygen. But when the helium is introduced into the atmosphere, helium is a very light particle, and floats above the air we breath, so, overall, there is nothing to worry about with releasing this 'waste' gas into the air! (helium is lighter than air, hence why we talk in a high-pitched 'squeak'. It is because the gas is less dense than air and the vibrations speed up from your vocal chords, making it sound higher)

 

[GTrax]

Interesting - about the urge to breath, and that using nitrogen only would leave one comfortably breathing, but still drifting off into unconsciousness.

But when the helium is introduced into the atmosphere, helium is a very light particle, and floats above the air we breath, so, overall, there is nothing to worry about with releasing this 'waste' gas into the air! (helium is lighter than air, hence why we talk in a high-pitched 'squeak'. It is because the gas is less dense than air and the vibrations speed up from your vocal chords, making it sound higher)

One thing about helium. It is only "lighter" than air when collected in a balloon or similar so as to be able to displace the air around it. Released loose, the atoms just ping around with astonishing speed. To test for leaks in a vacuum chamber, I released just a few seconds of puff almost too gentle to feel on a hand. Almost immediately, the detector responded from a considerable distance in the next industrial unit. After I had released less helium than would fill a party balloon, we had to wait about 30 minutes to let it disperse because we had "contaminated" the 2 units, and the car park outside all the way up to the road with detectable helium.

The "squeak voice" is primarily about the speed of sound in helium. I am not sure how much that speed is directly related to density - you are probably right about the relationship.

On the main theme of the thread, I think most of the available helium on the planet was/is ultimately derived from radioactive decay of Radon. Recently it has been pointed out that Helium in quantity is non-renewable, and is only available at the present price because of US Government policy to sell off its stock to pay for the storage and projects associated with the remainder. http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2010-09-13/helium-prices-jump-curb-debt"
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/helium-crisis-spreads-around-the-world"

Of course, should nuclear fusion become a major part of our energy resource, we should not expect that the helium "waste product" would amount to much - I think?

 

[mheslep]

Released loose, the atoms just ping around with astonishing speed. To test for leaks in a vacuum chamber, I released just a few seconds of puff almost too gentle to feel on a hand. Almost immediately, the detector responded from a considerable distance in the next industrial unit. After I had released less helium than would fill a party balloon, we had to wait about 30 minutes to let it disperse because we had "contaminated" the 2 units, and the car park outside all the way up to the road with detectable helium.

Yes, apparently molecular or atomic detectors will start pinging to show first arrivals progressing at an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound.