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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
R. E. Leuze, R. D. Baybarz, Boyd Weaver
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 17 | Number 2 | October 1963 | Pages 252-258
Solvent Extraction Chemistry Symposium. Part II. | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A28887
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Tramex process, in which trivalent actinides are extracted into tertiary amine hydrochloride from concentrated lithium chloride solution, has been developed for isolation of transplutonium elements from irradiated High Flux Isotope Reactor targets. Tests made in laboratory scale mixer-settlers gave americium losses of about 0.01 % and fission product decontamination factors of equal to or greater than 104. Nickel was the only contaminant that followed the transplutonium elements through the Tramex process. No serious radiation induced effects were noted in 1- to 10-ml batch extraction tests at activity levels up to the proposed processing level of 10 w/liter. A process was developed for splitting transplutonium elements into two fractions. Transcurium elements are extracted into mono-2-ethyl-hexyl phenyl phosphonic acid from dilute hydrochloric acid while americium-curium and nickel contaminant from the Tramex process remain in the aqueous phase. Demonstration in a 10-ml batch countercurrent extraction with simulated feed containing tracers gave a californium loss of about 0.1% and an americium decontamination factor of 103. Important variables for both extraction processes are discussed.