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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.
T. Radon, E. Kozlova, G. Fehrenbacher, H. Geissel, K. Sümmerer, H. Weick, M. Winkler
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 2 | November 2009 | Pages 492-496
Shielding | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 2) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9231
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Super-FRS is designed as a versatile partially superconducting fragment separator for the planned international Facility for Antiprotons and Ion Research. It will be able to separate all kinds of nuclear projectile fragments of primary heavy-ion beams including uranium with energies of up to 1.5 GeV/u and intensities of up to 1012 particles/s. The primary beam power of up to 50 kW has to be dumped in six shaped beam catchers in accordance with the ion optical setting of the separator in order not to enter the main separator, which will have accordingly weaker shielding. A key issue for such a high-power facility is the activation of several components and thus their access by maintenance personnel. Both the prompt and the residual dose due to activation are calculated by means of the Monte Carlo particle transport code FLUKA.The biological shielding in the target area will be realized by massive iron blocks (thickness [approximate] 2 m) around the beam tube and the magnets. This will be surrounded by up to 6 m of concrete in order to reduce the dose rates below the design value of 0.5 Sv/h, which is in agreement with the German radiation protection ordinance for public access. A dedicated maintenance channel is foreseen in which the residual dose rates are tolerable for short time access after a certain cooling time.