Inventing a new class of nuclear fuel solvents
The press service of Moscow State University reported yesterday (Tuesday) that its specialists have developed a new class of spent nuclear fuel solvents. The service revealed that this development will allow obtaining rare earth metals from waste, through a new study involving scientists from the Kurchatov Nuclear Institute and the Kornakov Institute of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry.
It is known that the development of nuclear energy not only brings a large amount of cheap energy to humanity, but also makes us think about ways to get rid of radioactive materials and spent nuclear fuel. When the nuclear reactor stops working, radionuclides remain in it with varying degrees of activity.
In this context, a team of scientists at the chemical and physical faculties of Moscow State University obtained a new class of organic compounds called "ligands" and studied them to treat spent nuclear fuel. The obtained data, together with new situations of studying complex compounds in solution, make it possible to choose an efficient extractor to separate ground and transition metals from mixtures.
It is worth noting that organic (ligand) compounds are used as one of the tools for dividing highly active nuclear waste into parts with similar chemical or physical properties. This stage is necessary to convert radionuclides into solid form and their subsequent disposal by burial. While the efficiency of the reaction in which metal ions are separated from the solution with the help of organic compounds depends on the structure of the organic “ligand” compounds and the mechanism of their interaction with the ions.
For their part, the authors of the study proposed the use of organic compounds based on (pyridine) modified with phosphorus, which is pyridine diphosphonate, as a compound that is lighter than the one used by scientists and is easily synthesized.
Source : websites