Willis Resilience Expedition of the deposition rate of Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, across Antarctica. The relatively short half-life of Tritium means it can be used to date snow and ice up to around 150 years old. The data can then be used to better understand the global water cycle, which is intrinsically linked to changes in climate. This will be the first large-scale study of Tritium in Antarctica since Tritium returned to normal levels following the spike caused by thermonuclear tests in the 1960s. The samples will be sent to GNS Science, a New Zealand Crown Research Institute, for analysis. Once
Tritium in small quantities by some nuclear power plants. In January 2014 it was made public that a total of 875 TBq (2.45 g) of tritium are on the site of Fukushima Daiichi, and the amount of tritium contained in the contaminated water is increasing by approximately 230 TBq (0.64 g) per year. According to a report by Tepco ""Tritium could be separated theoretically, but there is no practical separation technology on an industrial scale"." Tritium's decay product helium-3 has a very large cross section for reacting with thermal neutrons, expelling a proton, hence it is rapidly converted back to tritium