This work presents a comparison of three autoradiography techniques for imaging biological samples contaminated with actinides: emulsion-based, plastic-based autoradiography and a quantitative digital technique, the iQID camera, based on the numerical analysis of light from a scintillator screen. In radiation toxicology it has been important to develop means of imaging actinide distribution in ...

This document is the progress report of the JRC programme Safety of Nuclear Materials for the period July-December 1981. On the basis of the Council decision on the JRC plan 1980-1983, the activity on radioactive waste management which is carried out in the framework of the programme Safety of Nuclear Materials, has been organized into 4 projects: Risk Evaluation Protective Barriers Actinide Se...

The stoichiometric and catalytic chemistry of metal-organic compounds having actinide-to-carbon bonds is in a stage of rapid growth. Chemical, structural, and bonding characteristics have been identified which differ in interesting and informative ways from those of d-block transition element compounds.

In recent years AFIT has built expertise and resources dedicated to the growth and characterization of actinide oxides. The primary purpose of this research was to integrate positron spectroscopy – with which AFIT also has a long history – into this actinide research. The main objectives were to construct a Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy system, including a new positron source, and...

Efficient burnup of minor actinides is one of the most promising alternatives for minimizing waste in advanced nuclear fuel cycles. This work examines the concept of employing a Z-pinch driven fusion source in a sub-critical transmutation reactor designed to burn up actinides and generate constant power. Its fuel cycle is designed to allow on-line fission product removal and fuel replenishment....

The gas-phase thermochemistry of actinide monosulfides, AnS, was investigated experimentally and theoretically. Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry was employed to study the reactivity of An(+) and AnO(+) (An = Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, Am and Cm) with CS(2) and COS, as well as the reactivity of the produced AnS(+) with oxidants (COS, CO(2), CH(2)O and NO). From these experimen...

More than a century after its discovery the structure of the Pa(4+) ion in acidic aqueous solution has been investigated for the first time experimentally and by quantum chemistry. The combined results of EXAFS data and quantum chemically optimized structures suggest that the Pa(4+) aqua ion has an average of nine water molecules in its first hydration sphere at a mean Pa-O distance of 2.43 Å. ...

New actinide borates ThB4O8 and UB4O8 were synthesized under high-pressure, high-temperature conditions (5.5 GPa/1100 °C for thorium borate, 10.5 GPa/1100 °C for the isotypic uranium borate) in a Walker-type multianvil apparatus from their corresponding actinide oxide and boron oxide. The crystal structure was determined on basis of single-crystal X-ray diffraction data that were collected at r...