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DUCRETE
DUCRETE (Depleted Uranium Concrete) is a high density concrete alternative investigated for use in construction of casks for storage of radioactive waste. It is a composite material containing depleted uranium dioxide aggregate instead of conventional gravel, with a Portland cement binder. Background and development In 1993, the United States Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management initiated investigation into the potential use of depleted uranium in heavy concretes. The aim of this investigation was to simultaneously find an application for depleted uranium and to create a new and more efficient method for the storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuels. The material was first conceived at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory ( INEEL) by W. Quapp and P. Lessing, who jointly developed the processes behind the material and were awarded both U.S. and foreign patents in 1998 and 2000, respectively.M. J. Haire and S. Y. Lobach,"Cask size and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dry Cask Storage
Dry cask storage is a method of storing high-level radioactive waste, such as spent nuclear fuel that has already been cooled in the spent fuel pool for at least one year and often as much as ten years. Casks are typically steel cylinders that are either welded or bolted closed. The fuel rods inside are surrounded by inert gas. Ideally, the steel cylinder provides leak-tight containment of the spent fuel. Each cylinder is surrounded by additional steel, concrete, or other material to provide radiation shielding to workers and members of the public. There are various dry storage cask system designs. With some designs, the steel cylinders containing the fuel are placed vertically in a concrete vault; other designs orient the cylinders horizontally. The concrete vaults provide the radiation shielding. Other cask designs orient the steel cylinder vertically on a concrete pad at a dry cask storage site and use both metal and concrete outer cylinders for radiation shielding. As of 2021 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radioactive Waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons reprocessing. The storage and disposal of radioactive waste is regulated by government agencies in order to protect human health and the environment. Radioactive waste is broadly classified into low-level waste (LLW), such as paper, rags, tools, clothing, which contain small amounts of mostly short-lived radioactivity, intermediate-level waste (ILW), which contains higher amounts of radioactivity and requires some shielding, and high-level waste (HLW), which is highly radioactive and hot due to decay heat, so requires cooling and shielding. In nuclear reprocessing plants about 96% of spent nuclear fuel is recycled back into uranium-based and mixed-oxide (MOX) fuels. The residual 4% is minor actinides and fission products the latter of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most widely used building material. Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminum combined. Globally, the ready-mix concrete industry, the largest segment of the concrete market, is projected to exceed $600 billion in revenue by 2025. This widespread use results in a number of environmental impacts. Most notably, the production process for cement produces large volumes of greenhouse gas emissions, leading to net 8% of global emissions. Other environmental concerns include widespread illegal sand mining, impacts on the surrounding environment such as increased surface runoff or urban heat island effect, and potential public health implications from toxic ingredients. Significant research and development i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, lead is a shiny gray with a hint of blue. It tarnishes to a dull gray color when exposed to air. Lead has the highest atomic number of any stable element and three of its isotopes are endpoints of major nuclear decay chains of heavier elements. Lead is toxic, even in small amounts, especially to children. Lead is a relatively unreactive post-transition metal. Its weak metallic character is illustrated by its amphoteric nature; lead and lead oxides react with acids and bases, and it tends to form covalent bonds. Compounds of lead are usually found in the +2 oxidation state rather than the +4 state common with lighter members of the carbon group. Exceptions are mostly limited to organolead compounds. Like the lighter members of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant typically need an additional 11% chromium. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, steel is used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, trains, cars, machines, electrical appliances, weapons, and rockets. Iron is the base metal of steel. Depending on the temperature, it can take two crystalline forms (allotropic forms): body-centred cubic and face-centred cubic. The interaction of the allotropes of iron with the alloying elements, primarily carbon, gives steel and cast iron their range of unique properties. In pure iron, the crystal structure has relatively little resistance to the iron atoms slipping past one another, and so pure iron is quite ductile, or soft and easily formed. In steel, small amounts of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spent Nuclear Fuel
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle, it may have considerably different isotopic constituents. The term "fuel" is slightly confusing, as it implies a combustion of some type, which does not occur in a nuclear power plant. Nevertheless, this term is generally accepted. Nature of spent fuel Nanomaterial properties In the oxide fuel, intense temperature gradients exist that cause fission products to migrate. The zirconium tends to move to the centre of the fuel pellet where the temperature is highest, while the lower-boiling fission products move to the edge of the pellet. The pellet is likely to contain many small bubble-like pores that form during use; the fission product xenon migrates to these voids. Some of this xen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Level Waste
High-level waste (HLW) is a type of nuclear waste created by the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. It exists in two main forms: * First and second cycle raffinate and other waste streams created by nuclear reprocessing. * Waste formed by vitrification of liquid high-level waste. Liquid high-level waste is typically held temporarily in underground tanks pending vitrification. Most of the high-level waste created by the Manhattan Project and the weapons programs of the cold war exists in this form because funding for further processing was typically not part of the original weapons programs. Both spent nuclear fuel and vitrified waste are considered as suitable forms for long term disposal, after a period of temporary storage in the case of spent nuclear fuel. HLW contains many of the fission products and transuranic elements generated in the reactor core and is the type of nuclear waste with the highest activity. HLW accounts for over 95% of the total radioactivity produce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Binder (material)
A binder or binding agent is any material or substance that holds or draws other materials together to form a cohesive whole mechanically, chemically, by adhesion or cohesion. In a more narrow sense, binders are liquid or dough-like substances that harden by a chemical or physical process and bind fibres, filler powder and other particles added into it. Examples include glue, adhesive and thickening. Examples of mechanical binders are bond stones in masonry and tie beams in timber framing. Classification Binders are loosely classified as organic ( bitums, animal and plant glues, polymers) and inorganic ( lime, cement, gypsum, liquid glass, etc.). These can be either metallic or ceramic as well as polymeric depending on the nature of the main material. For example, in the compound WC-Co (Tungsten Carbide used in cutting tools) Co constitutes the binding agent for the WC particles. Based on their chemical resistance, binders are classified by the field of use: non-hydra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sintering
Clinker nodules produced by sintering Sintering or frittage is the process of compacting and forming a solid mass of material by pressure or heat without melting it to the point of liquefaction. Sintering happens as part of a manufacturing process used with metals, ceramics, plastics, and other materials. The atoms in the materials diffuse across the boundaries of the particles, fusing the particles together and creating one solid piece. Because the sintering temperature does not have to reach the melting point of the material, sintering is often chosen as the shaping process for materials with extremely high melting points such as tungsten and molybdenum. The study of sintering in metallurgical powder-related processes is known as powder metallurgy. An example of sintering can be observed when ice cubes in a glass of water adhere to each other, which is driven by the temperature difference between the water and the ice. Examples of pressure-driven sintering are the compact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrolysis
The pyrolysis (or devolatilization) process is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures, often in an inert atmosphere. It involves a change of chemical composition. The word is coined from the Greek-derived elements ''pyro'' "fire", "heat", "fever" and '' lysis'' "separating". Pyrolysis is most commonly used in the treatment of organic materials. It is one of the processes involved in charring wood.''Burning of wood'' , InnoFireWood's website. Accessed on 2010-02-06. In general, pyrolysis of organic substances produces volatile products and leaves char, a carbon-rich solid residue. Extreme pyrolysis, which leaves mostly |
Uranium Oxide
Uranium oxide is an oxide of the element uranium. The metal uranium forms several oxides: * Uranium dioxide or uranium(IV) oxide (UO2, the mineral uraninite or pitchblende) * Diuranium pentoxide or uranium(V) oxide (U2O5) * Uranium trioxide or uranium(VI) oxide (UO3) * Triuranium octoxide (U3O8), the most stable uranium oxide; yellowcake typically contains 70 to 90 percent triuranium octoxide) * Uranyl peroxide (UO2O2 or UO4) * Amorphous uranium(VI) oxide (''Am''-U2O7) Uranium dioxide is oxidized Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a ... in contact with oxygen to form triuranium octoxide. :3 UO2 + O2 → U3O8; at 700 °C (970 K) Preparation 38 During World War II, "Preparation 38" was the codename for uranium oxide used by German scientists. References Oxide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triuranium Octoxide
Triuranium octoxide (U3O8) is a compound of uranium. It is present as an olive green to black, odorless solid. It is one of the more popular forms of yellowcake and is shipped between mills and refineries in this form. U3O8 has potential long-term stability in a geologic environment. In the presence of oxygen (O2), uranium dioxide (UO2) is oxidized to U3O8, whereas uranium trioxide (UO3) loses oxygen at temperatures above 500 °C and is reduced to U3O8. The compound can be produced by any one of three primary chemical conversion processes, involving either uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) or uranyl fluoride (UO2F2) as intermediates. It is generally considered to be the more attractive form for disposal purposes because, under normal environmental conditions, U3O8 is one of the most kinetically and thermodynamically stable forms of uranium. Its particle density is 8.3 g cm−3. Triuranium octoxide is converted to uranium hexafluoride for the purpose of uranium enrichment. Soli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
