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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.
K. Urso, K. Sridharan, B. J. Jaques, G. Alanko, D. P. Butt, M. Meyer, P. Xu, B. Tyburska-Püschel
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 1 | October 2016 | Pages 100-110
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-155
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The corrosion resistance of cerium silicide, a surrogate of uranium silicide, is investigated to gain insight into the reaction of uranium silicide with water. As-received and proton-irradiated Ce3Si2, CeSi2, and CeSi1.x monolithic pellets are subjected to corrosion tests in water at 300°C and 9 MPa for up to 48 h. Results show that an oxide layer composed of Ce4.67 (SiO4)3O forms on the surface of all samples, and it grows thicker with extended exposure times. Irradiated samples corrode to a greater extent than their unirradiated counterparts, which is mainly a result of the existing post-irradiation cerium oxide and the presence of ion-induced defects. Most of the Ce3Si2 samples crack (as-received) or fracture (ion-irradiated) during testing, which is due to the brittleness of the samples and oxide erosion/spallation that occur during testing.