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Undeclared uranium hitches a ride on cobalt exports from Congo, study says
Philippe (left) and Manzuk quantified the amount of uranium that has been exported from the DRC in cobalt shipments or left behind in the environment. (Photo: Joel Hallberg/UW–Madison)
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Princeton University have published a study in Nature Communications that calls attention to a blind spot in nuclear nonproliferation: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has exported thousands of metric tons of uranium, and there is no accounting for where it has gone.
In partnership with Lighthouse Reports and the Financial Times, UW–Madison nuclear engineering professor and nuclear security expert Sébastien Philippe and Ryan Manzuk, a geologist and research fellow in Philippe’s group and at Princeton, conducted the study using countrywide mineralization and geochemical data.
P. S. Remya Devi, Shreeram Joshi, Rakesh Verma, A. V. R. Reddy, A. M. Lali, L. M. Gantayet
Nuclear Technology | Volume 171 | Number 2 | August 2010 | Pages 220-227
Technical Paper | Radioisotopes | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A10784
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The feasibility of using ion-exchange resins to separate cobalt and antimony from zirconium in acid solutions was investigated. The distribution coefficients of zirconium, cobalt, and antimony on strong cation and anion exchangers in HCl and oxalic acid media were determined. The mass effect of zirconium on the distribution coefficients of cobalt and antimony was studied. The isotherm for zirconium was obtained in HCl solution. The distribution coefficient and isotherm data were used to develop ion-exchange processes for separation of cobalt and antimony from zirconium in the linear and nonlinear regions of the isotherm. A decontamination factor of more than 103 was achieved in a single ion-exchange cycle with respect to both cobalt and antimony. Two cycles of ion exchange will bring down the activity to acceptable levels for processing of irradiated zirconium as well as achieve a significant reduction in the waste volume. This is the first paper on separation of 60Co and 125Sb from zirconium for radioactive waste management.