Radiochemistry

Alpha can be stopped quite easily by a few centimetres of air or a piece of paper and is equivalent to a helium nucleus.

A high-energy most interesting object which has been studied in this way is the hair of Napoleon's head, which has been examined for its arsenic content.

The effects of a series of different cooling times can be seen if a hypothetical sample that contains sodium, uranium, and cobalt in a 100:10:1 ratio was subjected to a very short pulse of thermal neutrons.

[5] In these experiments, fires were started in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl and the radioactivity in the air downwind was measured.

It is important to note that a vast number of processes can release radioactivity into the environment, for example, the action of cosmic rays on the air is responsible for the formation of radioisotopes (such as 14C and 32P), the decay of 226Ra forms 222Rn which is a gas which can diffuse through rocks before entering buildings[6][7][8] and dissolve in water and thus enter drinking water[9] In addition, human activities such as bomb tests, accidents,[10] and normal releases from industry have resulted in the release of radioactivity.

Some work has been done on the identification of the oxidation state and coordination number of plutonium and the other actinides under different conditions.

[17] The action of micro-organisms can fix uranium; Thermoanaerobacter can use chromium(VI), iron(III), cobalt(III), manganese(IV), and uranium(VI) as electron acceptors while acetate, glucose, hydrogen, lactate, pyruvate, succinate, and xylose can act as electron donors for the metabolism of the bacteria.

[18] Other researchers have also worked on the fixing of uranium using bacteria [5][6][7], Francis R. Livens et al. (Working at Manchester) have suggested that the reason why Geobacter sulfurreducens can reduce UO2+2 cations to uranium dioxide is that the bacteria reduce the uranyl cations to UO+2 which then undergoes disproportionation to form UO2+2 and UO2.

Now, with many experts in these fields approaching retirement age, action is needed to avoid a workforce gap in these critical fields, for example by building student interest in these careers, expanding the educational capacity of universities and colleges, and providing more specific on-the-job training.

In Europe, substantial effort is being done to harmonize and prepare the NRC education for the industry's and society's future needs.