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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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What’s in your Dubai chocolate? Nuclear scientists test pistachios for toxins
For the uninitiated, Dubai chocolate is a candy bar filled with pistachio and tahini cream and crispy pastry recently popularized by social media influencers. While it’s easy to dismiss as a viral craze now past its peak, the nutty green confection has spiked global pistachio demand, and growers and processors are ramping up production. That means more pistachios need to be tested for aflatoxins—a byproduct of a common crop mold.
J. H. Shaffer, W. R. Grimes, G. M. Watson, D. R. Cuneo, J. E. Strain, M. J. Kelly
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 18 | Number 2 | February 1964 | Pages 177-181
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A18316
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the conceptual two-region molten-salt breeder reactor, fissionable U233 will be recovered from the blanket as the decay product of Pa233. Since equilibrium concentrations of Pa233 would result in appreciable parasitic neutron absorptions, the advantages of thermal breeding could be realized to a greater extent by removing both Pa233 and U233 from the blanket mixture. Methods for recovering these materials from molten-fluoride mixtures by precipitation as oxides are presented. Small-scale experiments clearly indicated that it is possible to remove protactinium from molten-fluoride solutions by a process that appears to be surface precipitation of protactinium on beryllium oxide or thorium oxide particles. Protactinium was removed from molten mixtures of LiF-BeF2-ThF4 (67-18-15 mole %) by the addition of 1 to 2% by weight of solid beryllium oxide or thorium oxide. The removal efficiency was high when the initial concentration of protactinium was either in the range 1 to 2 ppb or 50 to 75 ppm. Uranium was successfully removed from solution in molten fluorides by use of a similar procedure. Approximately 2000 ppm uranium was precipitated from molten LiF-BeF2-ThF4 (67-18-15 mole %) by the addition of 3% by weight of beryllium oxide. Comparable results were also obtained using thorium oxide as the precipitant.