Properties of water water isotopes. Naturally occurring water is almost completely composed of the neutron-less hydrogen isotope protium. Only 155 ppm include deuterium ( or D), a hydrogen isotope with one neutron, and fewer than 20 parts per quintillion include tritium ( or T), which has two neutrons. Oxygen also has three stable isotopes, with present in 99.76%, in 0.04%, and in 0.2% of water molecules. Deuterium oxide, , is also known as heavy water because of its higher density. It is used in nuclear reactors as a neutron moderator. Tritium is radioactive, decaying with a half-life of 4500 days; exists in nature
Radioactive tracer selective affinity for particular sites in the human body. An extensive list of radioactive tracers used in hydraulic fracturing can be found below. In metabolism research, Tritium and C-labeled glucose are commonly used in glucose clamps to measure rates of glucose uptake, fatty acid synthesis, and other metabolic processes. While radioactive tracers are sometimes still used in human studies, stable isotope tracers such as C are more commonly used in current human clamp studies. Radioactive tracers are also used to study lipoprotein metabolism in humans and experimental animals. In medicine, tracers are applied in a number of tests, such as