FAQ - Only source of deuterium for fusion

[Richard Hull]

The are only two sources of deuterium for doing fusion! You are forced to choose one!

1. Pure deuterium gas, purchased in a small (lecture bottle sized) cylinder from a major scientific gas supplier. (some large welding supply gas shops in big cities can get this for you.) Prepare for $400 or so for a 50 liter cylinder. (you must also purchase the appropriate gas regular and needle valve to safely admit it into the fusor)

2.Pure "heavy water" or deuterium oxide. You can obtain the deuterium gas via a special electrolysis device known as a PEM cell run in reverse.
100 cc of Heavy water currently sells for about $150-$200. (2024 prices) This can be obtained from various specialized chemical suppliers found on the for sale forum under Primary Sources and suppliers listings. (United Nuclear is one known source)

Both of the above are the only way to obtain deuterium gas that must be fed into the fusor to do fusion. No pure, dry deuterium gas, means absolutely no fusion can ever be done!!! All of the above two methods are not cheap or easy to assemble or have function without some study.

Don't be stupid!....All water on earth contains a microscopic amount of deuterium. You cannot get it! period!! Do not allow anyone to tell you that you can somehow separate it in a pure, dry gaseous state in any manner. This includes by doing electrolysis of normal water where the product is intrinsically pure hydrogen. You cannot fuse electrolyzed hydrogen or separate the deuterium from it.

Richard Hull

Addendum: I add to this FAQ Rich Feldman's remarks which are well know to exist. Thanks Rich for this item

When discussing deuterium in water, we need to mind the ratios of D2O and HDO (the semiheavy water molecule).

It's the latter whose natural concentration is about 1/3200, when the D/H atom ratio on Earth is about 1/6400.
D2O is present at ratio of 1/40.96 million at equilibrium.

It's because liquid water molecules frequently exchange hydrogen atoms. By self-ionization (formation of H+ and OH- ion pairs) and promiscuous recombination, with all isotopes treated about the same. If we were to mix equal amounts of pure D2O and pure H2O, it would rapidly convert to 25% D2O, 50% HDO, and 25% H2O.