Latest Plutonium Stories

A small spike in radioactive sulfur from Japan's crippled nuclear plant was detected in southern California between March 22 and April 1, according to the first quantitative measurement of the amount of radiation leaked from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.However, scientists say the amount of radiation, while higher than normal background levels, was too small to pose health threats."The levels we recorded aren't a concern for human health. In fact, it took sensitive instruments,...

After Fukushima, it is now imperative to redefine what makes a successful nuclear power program - from cradle to grave. If nuclear waste management is not thought out from the beginning, the public in many countries will reject nuclear power as an energy choice, according to research that appears today in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE.According to Allison Macfarlane, associate professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University, and a member of...

Mainz has the most powerful source of ultracold neutrons, opening up the possibility of conducting a key experiment to determine the life time of the neutron Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have built what is currently the strongest source of ultracold neutrons. Ultracold neutrons (UCNs) were first generated here five years ago. They are much slower than thermal neutrons and are characterized by the fact that they can be stored in special containers. This property...

Easy-to-follow recipes for radioactive compounds like those found in nuclear fuel storage pools, liquid waste containment areas and other contaminated aqueous environments have been developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories."The need to understand the chemistry of these compounds has never been more urgent, and these recipes facilitate their study," principal investigator May Nyman said of her group's success in encouraging significant amounts of relevant compounds to...

Time has come revive long-dormant reprocessing programFailure to pursue a program for recycling spent nuclear fuel has put the U.S. far behind other countries and represents a missed opportunity to enhance the nation's energy security and influence other countries, the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Sunday.Dale Klein, Ph.D., Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Texas System, said largely unfounded concerns and "long-held myths" about...

A Sandia National Laboratories team helped reach a major milestone in the nation's nuclear nonproliferation efforts by working with the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan to move nuclear materials "” enough to build an estimated 775 nuclear weapons "” to safety.Sandia provided security and logistics expertise to complete the transfer across Kazakhstan of spent fuel containing 11 tons (10 metric tons) of highly enriched uranium and 3.3 tons (3 metric tons) of weapons-grade plutonium that...

Tin may seem like the most unassuming of elements, but experiments performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are yielding surprising properties in extremely short-lived isotopes near tin-100's "doubly magic" nucleus.Experiments performed with the exotic nucleus tin-101, which has a single neutron orbiting tin-100's closed shell of 50 protons and 50 neutrons, indicate an unexpected reversal in the ordering of lowest states in the nucleus. The finding...

HONOLULU, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- After rigorous testing performed by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), the innovative decontamination product, DeconGel®, has met requirements for safe transport to the U.S. Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico for disposal of transuranic waste (TRU). To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/cellularbioengineering/40561/ (Photo:...

One of the heaviest elementsAt GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, an international team of scientists succeeded in the observation of the chemical element 114, one of the heaviest elements created until now. The production of element 114 is very difficult and requires dedicated particle accelerators. So far, this feat was achieved at only two other research centers, in the USA and Russia. In the experiment at GSI, scientists employed the innovative new setup TASCA...

New method of medical isotope production could provide relief to current and future medical isotope crisesThe most widely used medical radioisotope, Technetium-99m (Tc-99m), is essential for an estimated 70,000 medical imaging procedures that take place daily around the world. Aging reactors, production intermittencies and threats of permanent reactor closures have researchers striving to develop alternative methods of supply. In a comparative study presented at SNM's 57th Annual Meeting,...