Are Main Rivers in Himalayas Under Threat?
...nt. Though the Indian government says there is little danger of the plutonium breaking out of its protective sheath, Shimatsu says the menace can't be ru... Asia's greatest rivers. Eventually, he says, growing heat from the plutonium will cause it to break free and contaminate the surroundings, which in turn...Occupational Exposure To Radiation Causes Chromosome Aberrations
...onal University of Singapore studied the effect of plutonium exposure and risk of developing Chromosomal aberrations leading to cancer// in plutonium plant workers. The study is mainly aimed at iden... author at Mayak weapons complex in Russia. In plutonium exposed workers the chromosome aberrations occurre...DOE to establish Energy Frontier Research Center at PNNL
...e University of South Carolina on nanomaterials and the other led by the University of Notre Dame on materials containing radioactive elements such as plutonium and uranium. PNNL's partnership with the UND center will involve the use of equipment at EMSL, DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on th...Ben-Gurion University engineers develop technique to help combat nuclear proliferation
...engineers have developed a technique to "denature" plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsui... commercial smoke detectors and industrial gauges, plutonium can only be used for peaceful purposes. This tec...explains Ronen. "They wouldn't be able to get new plutonium for weapons if it is denatured, but countries that...Case Western Reserve University researchers track Chernobyl fallout
...ng the team's findings was the fact that much more plutonium was found in the Swedish soil at a depth that corr...uring the presence and location of cesium (137Cs), plutonium (239, 240Pu), and lead (210Pbxs). Matisoff will...y. Leeched of much of its radionuclides, much less plutonium fell on Poland when the cloud later crossed over i...Getting to the root of the matter
...ironmental management. For example, one paper in the collection uses such a model to investigate the role of root uptake in regulating the movement of plutonium in soils at the Savannah River nuclear materials processing site. Roots can also be studied at the level of plant species or biomes. Included in th...Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, July 2008
... fuel in a process that doesn't produce a separate plutonium stream. The work is the result of the Coupled End...vision said conventional reprocessing methods pull plutonium separately from the spent-fuel mix of actinides (u...s the first separation of spent nuclear fuel where plutonium isn't pulled out by itself and the product materia...Scientists discover how nanocluster contaminants increase risk of spreading
...ost half a century, scientists have struggled with plutonium contamination spreading further in groundwater tha...imals. It was known nanometer sized clusters of plutonium oxide were the culprit, but no one had been able t...rce to finally discover and study the structure of plutonium nanoclusters. When...'Nanominerals' influence Earth systems from ocean to atmosphere to biosphere
... substances. Research at one of the most contaminated nuclear sites in the world, a nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Mayak, Russian, has shown that plutonium travels in local groundwater, carried by mineral nanoparticles. In the atmosphere, mineral nanoparticles impact heating and cooling. Such particles...Group led by Stanford physicist says there's an urgent need for nuclear detectives
...tabases that include actual samples of uranium and plutonium from around the world, the nuclear investigators m... was mined and how it was processed. Weapons-grade plutonium can be exposed during its production to different ...t is also possible to establish the length of time plutonium spent in the reactor. In some cases, it may be p...Chernobyl: The true scale of the accident
...s raining when contaminated air masses passed. Most of the strontium and plutonium isotopes were deposited within 100 kilometers of the damaged reactor. Radio...f 30 years, persist and will remain a concern for decades to come. Although plutonium isotopes and americium 241 will persist perhaps for thousands of years, the...Researchers find Amchitka seafood safe for now
...from other sources such as fallout, or even was naturally-occurring. For example, CRESP wrestled with what it meant to have more algae samples showing plutonium from Amchitka and more fish samples showing Cesium-137 from the reference site at Kiska. In all these cases the data was consistent as levels were bot...Nanoscience will change the way we think about the world
...y A.P. Novikov (2006) at one of the most contaminated nuclear sites in the world, a nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Mayak, Russian, has shown that plutonium has traveled in local groundwater, carried by nanoparticles of less than 15 nanometers. In the atmosphere, nanoparticles impact heating and cooling...Using supercomputers to make safer nuclear reactors
...um, SFRs can also source their power from fuel that is a mixture of uranium and plutonium. In particular, SFRs will be able to burn both weapons-grade plutonium and pre-existing nuclear waste, Podowski said. Thanks to their high temperatures, SFRs will also produce electricity at higher efficiency than current...