Comments on: Eleventh Hour: It Ain’t Heavy. It’s My Water.

By: Ralf

Ralf — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:43:13 +0000

The same story was also depicted in the UK original Eleventh Hour starring Patrick Stewart, but there were some differences, which made the original much believable. First of all the heavy water distillery was not some improvised equipment, but a huge underground facility (actually integrated into the dam of a hydroelectric power plant) which was mentioned to be a remnant of World War II and at that time an official government project to produce heavy water faster then the Germans. Also there was no mention of a dirty bomb, but instead the crook’s plan, was to sell the heavy water to countries interested in building nuclear reactors and soon after that nuclear bombs.

However, the major flaw of the story (at least in my opinion) was present in both versions: The heavy water that leaked the production sites was transported to the spring by water ways already actively used by normal water. If I remember correctly, in the UK version it was ground water flows, and in the US version some pipeline. This is also demonstrated in both stories, by the fact that when Hood arrives only normal water comes from the spring. In my opinion, the original leak of heavy water would have been immediatly dilluted within the normal water, and the spring could never have delivered any signifcant amount of heavy water.

By: Eric Wolff

Eric Wolff — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:45:36 +0000

Quite often 11th Hour demands some suspension of disbelief. There’s really no way the crooks produced so much heavy water to feed the natural spring.

But, to answer Jeff’s question, I think it’s possible they were using the heavy water to shield from the radioactivity of the Thallium-202 they were making.

By: Brian Stuy

Brian Stuy — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:45:47 +0000

In addition to the problem outlined above, I wondered how much heavy water the terrorists produced in order to get a large spring to spit the stuff out for weeks. Jacob’s ice cubes would need to be pure heavy water to sink as they did, and this was after three weeks of the spring flowing (since the boy had been cured already when Jacob heard of the miracle). That would mean that tens of thousands of gallons of heavy water would be needed.

By: Eleventh Hour: It Ain’t Heavy. It’s My Water. | No Brainer Profits

Eleventh Hour: It Ain’t Heavy. It’s My Water. | No Brainer Profits — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:07:06 +0000

[...] Go here to see the original: Eleventh Hour: It Ain’t Heavy. It’s My Water. [...]

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:12:59 +0000

I just watched this episode on video tape and found this blog entry while researching the science behind this episode. The part I was interested in was the role the heavy water was supposed to play in the dirty bomb. I guess we are supposed to believe they had conventional explosives that were going to spread the “radioactivity” of the heavy water? If so this is disappointingly weak as the only way heavy water is toxic is if large quantities are ingested as happened to the miracle seekers.

I really enjoy The Eleventh Hour but I think its weak point is that more often than not the scientific mystery is caused by a criminal conspirancy rather than a natural phenomenon or, as has happened in a couple of episodes, an accident due to human ignorance.