Helium-3 of the airway tree, locate unventilated defects, measure the alveolar oxygen partial pressure, and measure the ventilation/perfusion ratio. This technique may be critical for the diagnosis and treatment management of chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, cystic fibrosis, and asthma. Production, sales and distribution of helium-3 in the United States are managed by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Isotope Program. Virtually all helium-3 used in industry today is produced from the radioactive decay of tritium. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen and is typically produced by bombarding lithium-6 with neutrons in a nuclear
Hydrogen isotope biogeochemistry this, NMR experiments involved constructing massive projects, locating large magnets, and hand wiring miles of copper coil. Proton NMR remained the most popular technique throughout advancements in following decades, but deuterium and tritium were used in other flavors of NMR spectroscopy. Deuterium has a different magnetic moment and spin than protium, but generally a much smaller signal. Historically, deuterium NMR is a poor alternative to proton NMR, but has been used to study the behavior of lipids on membranes. Recently, a variation of deuterium NMR called H-SNIF has shown potential for understating position specific isotope compositions and comprehending biosynthetic pathways.