Sentences with word «neptunium»

Researchers made compounds of neptunium — which is difficult to work with owing to its high radioactivity — and examined them to learn more about its properties and behaviour.

[2] Minor actinides (MAs): Elements synthesized in nuclear fuel other than uranium and plutonium, such as neptunium, americium and curium.

Neutrons were fired at an aluminium target filled with neptunium - 237, of which there is a larger stockpile.

Himalayan salt — «The King of Salts» — apparently contains «high inherent stored information from 250,000,000 years ago», along with «84 of the nutritional elements you need», including neptunium and plutonium.

The irradiated pellets are then dissolved and ORNL staff use a chemical process to separate the plutonium from remaining neptunium.

A global team led by University of Edinburgh chemists made a series of metallo - carbon neptunium compounds and carried out in - depth analyses to determine their molecular and electronic structures.

Experiments have shown that certain microbes can make use of radionuclides such as uranium and neptunium in place of oxygen.

For example, if neptunium - 237 (with a half - life of 2.2 million years) captures two neutrons, it spawns plutonium - 239.

In addition, an assembly carrying neptunium will be placed at the edge of the core to be transmuted by the fission reaction.

The lab irradiated neptunium - 237, and these juiced - up atoms decayed into plutonium - 238, which the engineers isolated and shipped off to be turned into pellets.

In a once - through fuel cycle, more than 98 percent of the expected long - term radiotoxicity is caused by the resulting neptunium 237 and plutonium 242 (with half - lives of 2.14 million and 387,000 years, respectively).

They use the High Flux Isotope Reactor, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at ORNL, to irradiate the pellets, creating neptunium - 238, which quickly decays and becomes plutonium - 238.

These are formed when uranium absorbs a neutron and doesn't fission, and include some nasty elements like neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium.

Separation of neptunium can also be done — the technology exists.

Poneman said Monju came up in the discussions because of the possibility of using fast reactors to burn plutonium and the long - lived isotopes of elements such as neptunium and americium that account for much of the radiotoxicity of nuclear waste.

An optimized closed (fast - reactor) fuel cycle would recycle not just the uranium and plutonium but all actinides in the fuel, including neptunium, americium and curium.

Remaining neptunium is recycled into new targets to produce more plutonium - 238.

For example, researchers in biogeochemistry study how microbes interact with radioactive elements in the environment — especially long - lived elements such as uranium, plutonium, and neptunium.

The back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, mostly spent fuel rods, often contains fission products that emit beta and gamma radiation, and may contain actinides that emit alpha particles, such as uranium - 234, neptunium - 237, plutonium - 238 and americium - 241, and even sometimes some neutron emitters such as Cf.

Among the longest lived of these are a group of heavy elements called actinides, which includes plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium, with half - lives of thousands or millions of years.

In the late 1970s, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, forerunner to AEA Technology, went as far as separating out americium and neptunium and putting them in the prototype fast reactor at Dounreay in Scotland.

The gas - phase results are consistent with the spontaneous hydrolysis of PaO2 + in aqueous solution, this in contrast to heavier actinide dioxides of uranium, neptunium, and plutonium; the heavier actinide dioxides form stable hydrates in both solution and gas phase.

This behavior reveals that different chemistry occurs when a water molecule is added to protactinium versus the heavier actinide dioxide cations of uranium, neptunium, and plutonium.

Chemical isolation of naturally occurring technetium, promethium, actinium, protactinium, neptunium, or americium would indicate the presence of superheavy particles in the forms RuX — , SmX — , 232ThX — , 235,236,238 UX — , 244PuX — , or 247CmX — .

Engineers mix the neptunium oxide with aluminum and press the mixture into high - density pellets.

Production begins at Idaho National Laboratory, which stores the existing inventory of neptunium - 237 feedstock and ships it as needed to ORNL.

Research at the ACE will integrate both experimental and computational approaches to analyze radioactive materials, including the elements americium, neptunium, plutonium and uranium, taking advantage of specialized facilities developed at Notre Dame.