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Pyrochemical Treatment of Salts
Published in Thomas E. Carleson, Nathan A. Chipman, Chien M. Wai, Separation Techniques in Nuclear Waste Management, 2017
A metal button is produced during the salt scrub process that is easily separated from the “cleaned” salt. The metal button can be stored, converted to an oxide for storage, or further refined using aqueous processing to separate the plutonium from the americium, if plutonium recovery is required. Americium is an intense emitter of gamma radiation. In metal form, this radiation is attenuated; therefore, radiation exposure to personnel is minimized when the MSE salt scrub button is stored as a metal rather than converted to an oxide and stored. The cleaned salt can be stored as transuranic (TRU) waste or could be recycled back through MSE or other pyrochemical operations.
Monitoring and Detection Equipment for Terrorist Agents
Published in Robert A. Burke, Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders, 2017
M8A1 Automatic Chemical Agent Alarm is comprised of the M43A1 detector unit and the M42 alarm unit. It will automatically detect gross-level vapor concentrations of GB and VX and sound an audible alarm. These units are generally used for fixed-location detection of agents. Chemical stockpile sites around the country use M8A1 detectors to monitor for leaks in containers and munitions. The M8A1 can also detect blister agents if the vesicant agent detector is attached. A radioactive source, Americium 241 (Am 241), is used for detection of nerve agents in the M43A1 detector. Air is automatically drawn into the detector from the surrounding atmosphere through an inlet at the top. Air samples are ionized by the radioactive source and electronically analyzed for the presence of nerve agents. When agents are detected, the system activates an audible alarm.
Radioactive Materials and Radioactive Decay
Published in Robert E. Masterson, Nuclear Engineering Fundamentals, 2017
Americium-241 is commonly used as an ionizing agent in household smoke detectors. Polonium-210 is used for eliminating the static charge in fabrics in textile mills, and it is also used on brushes for removing the dust from photographic films. Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, naturally occurring, radioactive noble gas that is formed from the decay of Radium-226. It is one of the heaviest substances that remains as a gas under normal conditions. Its most stable isotope, Rn-222, has a half-life of 3.8 days, and it is used in nuclear medicine for the treatment of various forms of cancer.
Gamma Radiolysis of Phenyl-Substituted TODGAs: Part I
Published in Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange, 2023
Christopher A. Zarzana, Jack McAlpine, Andreas Wilden, Michelle Hupert, Andrea Stärk, Mudassir Iqbal, Willem Verboom, Bruce J. Mincher, Gary S. Groenewold, Giuseppe Modolo
Innovative reprocessing technologies offer opportunities to reduce heat load and extract usable americium or curium in reprocessed nuclear fuel. Liquid–liquid extraction is the most common strategy used to separate the elements that comprise used nuclear fuel. The approach relies on organic ligands that selectively interact with a subset of the elements in the used fuel, forming coordination complexes that can partition from the aqueous phase to the organic phase, thus effecting separation. The extractant ligands must operate in an extreme environment of high radiation fields and significant concentrations of nitric acid, which results in degradation of the ligands over time and a loss of separation efficiency. Additionally, radiolytically produced ligand degradation products can exert a deleterious effect on separation processes resulting from non-specific complexation, further reducing separation efficacy. To maintain separation performance, the degradation products must be removed from the separation solvent and the degraded ligand replaced, which adds to the overall cost of partitioning. Thus, understanding the radiation chemistry of separation ligands in the presence of nitric acid is critical to the development of new, radiation resistant separation ligands and nuclear fuel cycles that can improve the cost competitiveness of nuclear energy.[4–6]