Hydrogen isotope biogeochemistry assumed that helium-3 was the radioactive component. The work of Luis Walter Alvarez and Robert Cornog first isolated tritium and reversed Rutherford's incorrect notion. Alvarez reasoned that tritium was radioactive, but did not measure the half-life, although calculations at the time suggested over ten years. At the end of World War II, the physical chemist Willard Libby detected the residual radioactivity of a tritium sample with a Geiger counter, providing a more accurate understanding of the half-life, now accepted at 12.3 years. The discovery of hydrogen isotopes also impacted the field of physics in the 1940s, as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Bioremediation of radioactive waste suitable for transfer to a nuclear waste repository). Phytovolatilization involves the capture and subsequent transpiration of radionuclides into the atmosphere. It does not remove contaminants but releases them in volatile form (less harmful). Despite not having too many applications for radioactive waste, it is very useful for the treatment of tritium, because it exploits plants' ability to transpire enormous amounts of water. The treatment applied to tritium (shielded by air produces almost no external radiation exposure, but its incorporation in water presents a health hazard when absorbed into the body) uses polluted effluents to irrigate phreatophytes. It becomes a system