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
Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology also manufactures self-luminescent tritium filled sources. The organisation also develops radiation-based medical equipment to treat cancer. BRIT operates three radiation facilities, one of them a spice and allied products irradiation facility in Vashi and another a "Krushak" (Krishi Utpadan Sanrakshan Kendra) radiation processing plant at Nashik. G. Ganesh is BRIT's Chief Executive officer since 1 August 2015, succeeding Anil Kumar Kohli (2006-2015). Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology in short known as "BRIT" is a unit of the Department of Atomic Energy with its headquarters in Navi Mumbai, India. It is involved in production,