Satterthwaite and Toepke (1970 Phys. Rev. Lett. 25 741) discovered that Th 4 H 15 -Th 4 D 15 superhydrides are superconducting but exhibit no isotope effect. As the isotope effect is a fundamental prediction of electron-phonon mediated superconductivity described by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer (BCS) its absence alludes to some other mechanism. Soon after this work, Stritzker and Buckel (1972 Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and nuclei 257 1-8) reported that superconductors in the PdH x -PdD x system exhibit the reverse isotope effect. Yussouff et al (1995 Solid State Communications 94 549) extended this finding in PdH x -PdD x -PdT x systems. Renewed interest in hydrogen-and deuterium-rich superconductors is driven by the discovery of near-room-temperature superconductivity in highlycompressed H 3 S (Drozdov et al 2015 Nature 525 73) and LaH 10 (Somayazulu et al 2019 Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 027001).Here we attempt to reaffirm or disprove our primary idea that the mechanism for nearroom-temperature superconductivity in hydrogen-rich superconductors is not BCS electron-phonon mediated. To that end, we analyse the upper critical field data, B c2 (T), in Th 4 H 15 -Th 4 D 15 (Satterthwaite and Toepke 1970 Phys. Rev. Lett. 25 741) as well as two recently discovered highpressure hydrogen-rich phases of ThH 9 and ThH 10 (Semenok et al 2019 Materials Today,