One conspiracy theory about the WTC collapse is that traces of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, prove that nuclear devices, or, in some claims, mini-nukes were used to bring down the towers. However, this is a complete lie.

For one thing, any nuclear device will leave huge amounts of radiation as we see here. Furthermore, there would have been an electromagnetic pulse that would knock out all electronic equipment in range, which can be considerable (source). This quote from here makes the point quite nicely:

Living organisms are impervious to these effects, but electrical and electronic equipment can be temporarily or permanently disabled by them. Ionized gases can also block short wavelength radio and radar signals (fireball blackout) for extended periods.

Hint: This means that the TV cameras in the area of the WTC would have STOPPED WORKING when the towers came down. They did not do so.

Each element of the periodic table has various isotopes. This source gives the definition of an isotope as “Atoms with the same number of protons, but differing numbers of neutrons. Isotopes are different forms of a single element.” If you change the number of electrons in the atom, you have an ion, and if you change the number of protons, you have a different element.

As we see from this quote here, the mass of the proton and neutron are about the same: “Except for their electric charge, the proton and neutron were nearly identical. Their mass was almost the same, and both were found in the atomic nucleus.” As Wikipedia correctly points out, the mass of an electron is considerably smaller, so when measuring atomic masses, the electron is ignored.

If you refer to the periodic table at the top of this article (which came from here), you will notice a letter or letters, a whole number just above the letter or letters, and a decimal below. The letter or letters are the atomic symbols for the elements ( H for hydrogen, He for helium, etc). The whole number at the top is the atomic number, which is also the number of protons, and the decimal is the atomic mass, which is the combined mass of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.

As you can see from the periodic table, with a few exceptions, the atomic masses are NOT whole numbers. The reason for this is quite simple: the atomic mass is the AVERAGE MASS OF ALL ISOTOPES OF A GIVEN ELEMENT. For example, hydrogen has a mass of 1.008 atomic mass units (amu). This is the average of the 3 isotopes of hydrogen: protium, which has 1 proton, 1 electron, and 0 neutrons, deuterium, which has 1 proton, 1 electron, and one neutron, and tritium, which has 1 proton, 1 electron, and 2 neutrons. Protium is the most common isotope of hydrogen, and protium and deuterium are the only stable hydrogen isotopes (source).

Now as for the tritium found at the WTC, there were only TRACES of it found there. In point of fact, the only traces of tritiated water ( meaning water containing tritium), were the normal background levels and were no threat to human life (reference).

There’s a perfectly logical explanation for tritium that doesn’t require the presence of nukes. Tritium is often used in radioluminescent devices, such as your average “Exit sign.” The glow is caused by the tritium decay reacting with phosphors, most commonly zinc sulfide ( ZnS). It seems to me there would be quite a few exit signs in a 110-story building. Tritium is also used in glow-in-the dark watches and as a paint polymer (reference).

In reality, while tritium was found at the WTC, it was in very LOW concentrations, and the possible sources were analyzed and deemed to be consistent with the experimental data available. These sources were:

1. Exit signs in the buildings
2. Emergency signs from the planes
3. Fire and other emergency equipment
4. 4Weapons sights (there were several federal and state law enforcement agencies in the building, specifically WTC 6 and 7, and ATF had 2 vaults full of tactical weapons in WTC 6, not to mention the 63 police officers killed in the attack. We can safely assume they were armed and it’s not inconceivable that some of their service pistols were equipped with tritium night sights)
5. Timepieces (source)

In short, the tritium came from everyday sources that were already in the buildings and/or planes, NOT nuclear weapons.

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