Tritium ordinary hydrogen, but they do fuse the small minority of deuterium nuclei. Like the other isotopes of hydrogen, tritium is difficult to confine. Rubber, plastic, and some kinds of steel are all somewhat permeable. This has raised concerns that if tritium were used in large quantities, in particular for fusion reactors, it may contribute to radioactive contamination, although its short half-life should prevent significant long-term accumulation in the atmosphere. The high levels of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing that took place prior to the enactment of the Partial Test Ban Treaty proved to be unexpectedly useful to oceanographers. The high levels
Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory The Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory is a multistage particle accelerator complex operated by Japan's Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science which is itself a part of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. Located in Saitama, the RIBF generates unstable nuclei of all elements up to uranium and studies their properties. According to physicist Robert Janssens, ""[it] can produce the most intense beams of primary particles in the world."" RIBF took ten years to construct and its Superconducting Ring Cyclotron (SRC) can achieve energies of 2,600 MeV. Work at the RIBF has contributed to the understanding of