Would drinking small amounts of heavy water protect you from radiation?

May 29, 2013 10:11 AM

Would drinking small amounts of heavy water protect you from radiation?

Hi all,

Would drinking small amounts of heavy water protect you from radiation poisoning, even in some small way or delay onset?

What about drinking heavy water(as if it was groundwater, let's pretend) that has been near a natural uranium source(like a mine)? Would this only harm you? Heavy water doesn't *block* radiation, it only absorbs it slowly, right?

I've been trying to figure it exactly how it works poking around online but I'm not putting the pieces together and if someone has a clearly worded explanation I would greatly appreciate it.

posted by lettuchi to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

No. Absolutely no protection at all. However, it could well make you very sick. D20 is physically more massive than normal water, and when it's in your cells in sufficient quantity it slows down essential chemical processes. Drinking a large enough amount of D20 can kill you.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:28 AM on May 29, 2013 [3 favorites]

HELL no. Where on Earth did you get that idea??? Heavy water in doses much higher than is natural is harmful. The only way to protect yourself against radiation is to avoid dangerous levels of radiation.
posted by grahamsletter at 10:30 AM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Part of your problem here is that "radiation" isn't a single thing. It's at least four things:

1. high energy photons (gamma rays)
2. high energy electrons (beta)
3. high energy helium nuclei (alpha)
4. free neutrons.

D20 wouldn't really affect any of the first three. When it's used in a heavy water reactor, what they're trying for is that it will slow down neutrons. But if a deuteron absorbs a neutron it becomes tritium, which will eventually beta decay to He3. If it doesn't absorb the neutron, the neutron will eventually hit something else and maybe activate it, usually resulting in eventual beta radiation.

When people are exposed to "radiation" and die rapidly from it, usually that's gamma rays. D20 has no effect on that.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:33 AM on May 29, 2013 [10 favorites]

Something from my file on a future FPP i should put together that might be related to the question.
posted by bartonlong at 11:32 AM on May 29, 2013

Well, there is the hypothesis of radiation hormesis, which posits that low levels of ionizing radiation can be beneficial by stimulating cell repair processes and stuff like that. But it's not exactly a widely adopted or accepted hypothesis, and it's difficult to study so it's not clear that we're likely to get definitive answers one way or another in the near future.
posted by mskyle at 12:12 PM on May 29, 2013

I think there was an episode of Hogan's Heroes where they did something like this, but no, it doesn't actually work.
posted by holloway at 2:28 PM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

For the record: Hogan's Heros: Go Light on the Heavy Water
posted by holloway at 9:06 PM on May 29, 2013