Editing Heavy water (section)

===Heavy water radiation contamination confusion===
Although many people associate heavy water primarily with its use in nuclear reactors, pure heavy water is not radioactive. Commercial-grade heavy water is slightly radioactive due to the presence of minute traces of natural tritium, but the same is true of ordinary water. Heavy water that has been used as a coolant in nuclear power plants contains substantially more tritium as a result of neutron bombardment of the deuterium in the heavy water ([[Tritium#Health risks|tritium is a health risk]] when ingested in large quantities).

In 1990, an employee at the [[Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station]] in Canada obtained a sample (estimated as about a "half cup") of heavy water from the primary heat transport loop of the [[nuclear reactor]], and loaded it into a cafeteria drink dispenser. Eight employees drank some of the contaminated water. The incident was discovered when employees began leaving [[bioassay]] urine samples with elevated tritium levels. The quantity of heavy water involved was far below levels that could induce heavy water toxicity, but several employees received elevated radiation doses from tritium and neutron-activated chemicals in the water.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ecology.at/nni/site.php?site=Point++Lepreau |title=Point Lepreau in Canada |publisher=NNI (No Nukes Inforesource) |access-date=10 September 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070710224724/http://www.ecology.at/nni/site.php?site=Point++Lepreau <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 10 July 2007}}</ref> This was not an incident of heavy water poisoning, but rather radiation poisoning from other isotopes in the heavy water.

Some news services were not careful to distinguish these points, and some of the public were left with the impression that heavy water is normally radioactive and more severely toxic than it actually is. Even if pure heavy water had been used in the [[water dispenser]] indefinitely, it is not likely the incident would have been detected or caused harm, since no employee would be expected to get much more than 25% of their daily drinking water from such a source.<ref>
{{cite news |date=1990-03-06 |title=Radiation Punch Nuke Plant Worker Charged With Spiking Juice |newspaper=[[Philadelphia Daily News]] |agency=Associated Press |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DN&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI%7CDN&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB29D29C1FD71F6&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |url-status=dead |access-date=30 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024214618/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DN&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI%7CDN&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB29D29C1FD71F6&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |archive-date=24 October 2012}}
</ref>