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India-Pakistan
India exports heavy water to US
2007-03-17
As India and US struggle to hammer out a civilian nuclear agreement, some heavy water is quietly flowing between the two countries. For the first time, India exported 4.4 metric tonnes of heavy water to an American firm — Spectra Gases, headquartered in New Jersey with branches in the UK, Germany and Singapore.

Confirming the deal to TOI, Heavy Water Board (HWB) chief executive A L N Rao, said on Friday the consignment sailed from Mumbai on February 25 and was expected to reach US shores on March 23. He, however, declined to say from which Indian atomic facility the heavy water was sourced. The capacity utilisation of all the heavy water plants till December 2006 was 113%.

Heavy water molecules have two atoms of the hydrogen isotope deuterium bonded with an atom of oxygen, making its properties slightly different from normal water which is H2O. It's functions as a moderated in nuclear reactors which use unenriched uranium and helps stabilise the fast-paced and volatile chain reactions.

The development, according to the nuclear fraternity, indicates that tables have turned with India supplying a sensitive nuclear component to a major nuclear power like US. "Generally, it has been the other way round," remarked an atomic official. "The quantity dispatched may be small. But the export of heavy water from India to US for the first time is very important and significant in view of the on going negotiations relating to the nuke deal," said Rao.

He said that the American firm imported heavy water from India because of its excellent quality and "highest purity" level. India is the world's second largest heavy water producer and has exported it to other countries.

India sold 100 tonnes of heavy water to South Korea in 1996 and 30 tonnes to China in June 2003. An official of HWB said India joined the heavy water export club in 1996, two years before its nuclear weapons test in May 1998.

"We are not a major player at the moment because the quantity we are exporting currently is not very big. We are, however, confident the demand from India will pick up in the coming years because of the excellent quality of our heavy water," he said.

Spectra, the US heavy water buyer carries out research in areas like fibre optics, medicine, semiconductors and also high purity gases for handling what is known as the equipment market.
Posted by:John Frum

#8  Mechanisms of cytotoxic effects of heavy water (deuterium oxide: D2O) on cancer cells.

by Takeda H et al. Shimane Medical University, Japan

D2O was found to significantly inhibit the invasion of tumor cells in a Matrigel invasion chamber assay at concentrations higher than 10% D2O. Incubation with D2O resulted in enlargement of cells, nuclear pyknosis and vacuolization, and immunostaining studies demonstrated that D2O treatment resulted in an increase in nuclear nick-end-labeling, which indicates DNA fragmentation, in KATO-3 and HepG2 cell lines. Furthermore, the nucleic acids and protein synthesis inhibition assay suggested that the inhibition of DNA synthesis may be one of the mechanisms responsible for the antitumor effects of D2O. Furthermore, oral administration of D2O resulted in a significant inhibition of the growth of Panc-1 tumor xenografted s.c. in nude mice, but survival was not prolonged. In conclusion, D2O has cytotoxic and cytostatic activities against human digestive organ cancer cell lines, and D2O may be a potential anticancer agent.
Posted by: John Frum   2007-03-17 19:57  

#7  LOL Valentine - of course ...you die from something else
Posted by: Frank G   2007-03-17 19:26  

#6  Reading what John wrote reminds of this little nugget from the Iranians:

Iranian Nuclear Chief Mohammad Sa'idi Explains Why Iran Produces Heavy Water: Drinking It Helps Fight Cancer and AIDS
Posted by: Valentine   2007-03-17 19:03  

#5  Any Brewmiester worth a salt knows that a lb. of Heavy Water Beer taste much heavier than a lb. of Lite Beer.
Posted by: RD   2007-03-17 17:49  

#4  thx John, that said, I stand by my first take: don't drink it :-)
Posted by: Frank G   2007-03-17 17:02  

#3  from wikipedia

Experiments in mice, rats, and dogs [2] have shown that a degree of 25% deuteration causes (sometimes irreversible) sterility, because neither gametes nor zygotes can develop. High concentrations of heavy water (90 %) rapidly kills fish, tadpoles, flatworms, and drosophila. Mammals such as rats given heavy water to drink die after a week, at a time when their body water approaches about 50% deuteration. The mode of death appears to be the same as that in cytotoxic poisoning (such as chemotherapy) or in acute radiation syndrome (though, of course, deuterium is not radioactive), and is due to deuterium's action in generally inhibiting cell division. Deuterium oxide has even been tested as a chemotherapeutic agent, but it seems to offer no advantages. As in chemotherapy, deuterium-poisoned mammals die of a failure of bone marrow (bleeding and infection) and intestinal-barrier functions (diarrhea and fluid loss).

Because it would take a very great deal of heavy water to replace 25% to 50% of a human being's body water (70% of body weight) with heavy water, accidental or intentional poisoning with heavy water is unlikely to the point of practical disregard. For a poisoning, large amounts of heavy water would need to be ingested without significant normal water intake for many days to produce any noticeable toxic effects (although in a few tests, volunteers drinking large amounts of heavy water have reported dizziness, a possible effect of density changes in the fluid in the inner ear). For example, a 70 kg human containing 50 kg of water and drinking 3 liters of pure heavy water per day, would need to do this for almost 5 days to reach 25% deuteration, and for about 11 days to approach 50% deuteration. Thus, it would take a week of drinking nothing but pure heavy water for a human to begin to feel ill, and 10 days to 2 weeks (depending on water intake) for severe poisoning and death.
Posted by: John Frum   2007-03-17 16:28  

#2  errr... don't drink it
Posted by: Frank G   2007-03-17 15:52  

#1  Ask RBeeees resident immam about heavy brown water.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-03-17 14:52  

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