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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.
Fumihiro Masukawa, Yoshihiro Nakane, Yosuke Iwamoto, Hiroshi Nakashima
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 680-684
Accelerators | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9289
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The radioactivity produced in accelerator cooling water was estimated to determine the maintenance scenario of Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) accelerators. The PHITS and the MCNPX codes were used to calculate the proton and neutron fluxes in water-cooled accelerator components. The activation cross-section sets of oxygen for high-energy protons and neutrons were evaluated from the available experimental data and theoretically calculated data by the INC/GEM and the LAHET codes. The radioactivity from corrosion products was also estimated by scaling of the measurements at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization 12 GeV Proton Synchrotron Experiment (KEK-PS) and Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF). The tritium estimation is an acceptable level for disposal to the environment, while short-lived nuclides at the 3-GeV synchrotron may raise the dose rate in the machine room.
