Jamaica signs MoU to advance nuclear adoption world-nuclear-news.org
Orano suspends operations at Arlit world-nuclear-news.org
Decommissioning permit granted for Brokdorf plant world-nuclear-news.org
Mochovce 4 passes safety system tests world-nuclear-news.org
Ambient office = 66 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 125 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 124 nanosieverts per hour
Blueberryfrom Central Market = 78 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 83 nanosieverts per hour
Navy names newest nuclear-powered submarine USS Atlanta ajc.com
US Submarine Earns Highest Military Honor for Spying on America’s Enemies newsweek.com
U.S. companies exposed to the nuclear energy trend seekingalpha.cm
US power grid added battery equivalent of 20 nuclear reactors in past four years theguardian.com
Ambient office = 76 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 109 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 112 nanosieverts per hour
Avocado from Central Market = 87 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 110 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 100 nanosieverts per hour
Dover Sole from Central = 103 nanosieverts per hour
Elementary hydrogen has three isotopes: protium, deuterium, and tritium. These isotopes play a critical role in hydrogen fuel production, nuclear fusion, and the development of advanced pharmaceuticals.
However, it’s very difficult to isolate these isotopes at room temperature. This is because they have similar sizes and shapes. In addition, each of them has one proton and one electron, leading to similar chemical and thermodynamic properties. The methods currently used for separating hydrogen isotopes are resource-intensive as they require extreme conditions to work.
Knut Asmis is a chemistry professor at Leipzig University. He said, “It has been known for almost 15 years that porous metal-organic frameworks can, in principle, be used to purify and separate hydrogen isotopes. However, this has only been possible at very low temperatures, around minus 200 degrees Celsius—conditions that are very costly to implement on an industrial scale.”
Asmis and his colleagues recently published a report that provides important insights into how hydrogen isotopes can be isolated at room temperature and at a low cost. Their research reveals that the secret is water ligand.
When porous metal ions such as Cu+ interact with hydrogen under extreme conditions, they perform selectively absorption of the different isotopes. The study authors note that “Adsorption is a process by which atoms, ions, or molecules from a gas or liquid adhere to a solid, often porous, surface”.
During their study, the researchers discovered that when water molecules are used as ligands with the copper ion, the metal becomes better at attracting and holding hydrogen molecules. In addition, the resulting copper-water complex is better at distinguishing the energy difference in the bonds between H2 (regular hydrogen) and D2 (heavy hydrogen) compared to bare copper.
The authors continue that “Combining experimental and computational methods, we demonstrate a high isotopologue selectivity in dihydrogen binding to Cu+(H2O), which results from a large difference in the adsorption zero-point energies (2.8 kJ mol−1 between D2 and H2, including an anharmonic contribution of 0.4 kJ mol−1).”
Unlike bare copper ions, the copper water complex doesn’t need large amounts of energy to achieve hydrogen isotope isolation. This suggests that it might lead to more efficient, less resource-intensive, and highly cost-effective ways of obtaining hydrogen isotopes.
The research shows that porous metal complexes with water ligands are promising candidates for hydrogen isotope isolation. It also suggests that metal-water complexes might be used to study chemical reactions that take place at particular sites in large systems.
The authors added that “These systems are ideal model complexes for gas-phase studies of the chemistry at individual active sites as they occur in framework materials.”
Asmis and his team also carried out spectroscopy and complex quantum calculations to understand the interaction between the hydrogen isotopes in detail. Their findings may reveal more practical ways of selective absorption of isotopes.
Thomas Heine is one of the study authors and an expert in theoretical chemistry at Technische Universität Dresden. He said, “For the first time, we have been able to show the influence of the individual atoms of the framework compounds on adsorption. We can now optimize them in a targeted manner in order to obtain materials with high selectivity at room temperature.”
Argentina ramping up radioisotope production world-nuclear-news.org
Orano sets up working groups for fast reactor fuels world-nuclear-news.org
SMRs becoming a reality, says Grossi world-nuclear-news.org
Partnership formed for UK Integral Molten Salt Reactor project world-nuclear-news.org
Ambient office = 74 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 91 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 96 nanosieverts per hour
Asparagus from Central Market = 151 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 91 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 83 nanosieverts per hour
South Carolina’s Savannah River and New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are manufacturing plutonium pits for use in nuclear weapons. Hollow, globe-shaped plutonium pits are placed at the core of nuclear warheads. Plutonium is one of the two key ingredients used to manufacture nuclear weapons, along with highly enriched uranium.
Plaintiffs in South Carolina’s federal court challenged a plan consummated in 2018 for the two pit production sites that they say relied on an outdated environmental impact study. They also say that the plan didn’t truly analyze simultaneous production, and undermined safety and accountability safeguards for a multibillion-dollar nuclear weapons program and related waste disposal.
Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said in her ruling that “Defendants neglected to properly consider the combined effects of their two-site strategy and have failed to convince the court they gave thought to how those effects would affect the environment.”
The decision was handed down as U.S. authorities this week certified with a “diamond stamp” the first new plutonium pit from Los Alamos for deployment as a key component to nuclear warheads under efforts to modernize the nation’s weapons.
This new ruling from South Carolina’s federal court says nuclear weapons regulators violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to properly analyze possible alternatives to production of the nuclear warhead component at Savannah River and Los Alamos.
Jay Coghlan is the director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico which is a co-plaintiff to the lawsuit. He said, “These agencies think they can proceed with their most expensive and complex project ever without required public analyses and credible cost estimates.” The court order provides litigants with two weeks to “reach some sort of proposed compromise” in writing.
A spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration said that the agency is reviewing the court’s ruling and consulting with the Department of Justice. Spokesperson Milli Mike said in an email that “We will confer with the plaintiffs, as ordered. At this point in the judicial process, work on the program continues.”
The ruling also rejected several additional claims in the lawsuit, including concerns about the analysis of the disposal of radioactive materials from the pit-making process.
At the same time, the judge said that nuclear weapons regulators at the Department of Energy “failed to conduct a proper study on the combined effects of their two-site strategy” and that “they have neglected to present a good reason.”
Plutonium pits were previously manufactured at Los Alamos until 2012. The lab was dogged by a string of safety lapses and concerns about a lack of accountability.
Proposals to move production to South Carolina triggered a political battle in Washington, D.C., as New Mexico senators fought to retain a foothold for Los Alamos in the multibillion-dollar program. The Energy Department is currently working to ramp up production at both Savannah River and Los Alamos to an eventual 80 pits per year, amid timeline extensions and rising cost estimates.
Plaintiffs in the plutonium pit lawsuit include environmental and nuclear-safety advocacy groups as well as a coalition of Gullah-Geechee communities of the descendants of Black slave along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.
Outside Denver, the closed Rocky Flats Plant was capable of producing more than 1,000 war reserve pits annually before work stopped in 1989 due to environmental and regulatory concerns. In 1996, the Department of Energy allowed for limited production capacity at Los Alamos, which produced its first war reserve pit in 2007. The lab ceased operations in 2012 after producing what was needed at the time.
Maryland must not incentivize more nuclear power marylandmatters.org
Reactor assembly completed for Bangladesh’s first nuclear unit world-nuclear-news.org
Kim Jong Un Issues Nuclear Warning To US as North Korea Grows Arsenal newsweek.com
Dodgeball and energy density feature in nuclear comic book world-nuclear-news.org
Ambient office = 85 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 104 nanosieverts per hour
English cucumber from Central Market = 122 nanosieverts per hour
Tap water = 92 nanosieverts per hour
Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour
