Nuclear chemistry

Nuclear chemistry is a special area of science that studies how tiny parts of atoms, called nuclei, change and behave. It looks at processes like radioactivity and how some elements change into different ones. This field helps us understand elements that glow and give off energy, such as the actinides, radium, and radon.

Nuclear chemistry is very important for many technologies. It studies how materials react inside places like nuclear reactors, even when things go wrong. It also looks at how waste from these reactors can be safely stored.

This science helps us understand how radiation affects living things, which is important for medical treatments. For example, it helps doctors use radiation to treat diseases like cancer. It also studies how to make and use special radioactive materials for many purposes, such as tracking processes in industry or changing how certain materials are made.

Even in areas that don’t involve radiation, nuclear chemistry plays a role. For example, a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance is often used by scientists to study the structure of molecules in organic and physical chemistry.

History

After Wilhelm Röntgen found X-rays in 1895, many scientists studied radiation that can move through air. Henri Becquerel found that uranium could create invisible rays that changed special plates used for pictures. He discovered something called radioactivity.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie found two new radioactive materials, polonium and radium, hidden in uranium ore. They learned how to separate these materials and study their properties.

Ernest Rutherford showed that radioactive materials change over time in a steady way. He also helped change our understanding of what atoms look like inside.

In 1934, Marie Curie’s daughter and son-in-law made a new kind of radioactivity by using tiny particles to change other materials.

Otto Hahn started studying how radioactive materials act in chemical reactions. In 1938, he and his team found that some atoms could split apart, a discovery called nuclear fission. This finding helped create nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.

Main areas

Radiochemistry is the study of materials that glow in the dark, where special glowing parts of elements are used to learn about non-glowing parts.

Radiation chemistry looks at how glowing things change regular materials. For example, it can turn water into gas and other substances.

Radiochemistry, radiation chemistry, and nuclear engineering help make and handle materials used in places that create glowing power, like uranium and thorium. They also help with cleaning up and storing glowing waste.

A mix of radiochemistry and radiation chemistry is used to study how tiny bits of glowing materials bump into each other, such as splitting atoms apart. Early clues to splitting atoms came from finding a glowing form of barium after uranium was hit with tiny particles.

The glowing fuel cycle includes all the steps to make and use glowing fuel, from digging up ores to using the fuel in reactors and then dealing with the used fuel, either by storing it or changing it again.

The glowing fuel cycle has two parts: one for normal use and one for when things go wrong. Without these steps, glowing fuel couldn’t be used safely.

Reprocessing

In the United States, glowing fuel is usually used only once before being stored away. This started in 1977 because of worries about certain glowing materials being used to make weapons. The Russian government changed a law to allow offering services to change used glowing fuel for clients outside Russia.

The common way to change used glowing fuel is called the PUREX process. It uses a special mix to pull out certain glowing parts from the used fuel. This process helps separate important glowing materials.

New ways to change glowing fuel are being tested. One idea is to remove most of the glowing uranium to save space in storage sites. Another method, called TRUEX, aims to remove certain hard-to-handle glowing metals to make waste easier to store. Other methods like DIAMEX and SANEX are also being studied to better handle glowing waste.

Absorption of fission products on surfaces

A big part of glowing chemistry is learning how tiny glowing bits stick to surfaces. This helps understand how these bits move out from storage or reactors. For example, a certain glowing form of technetium can stick to steel and charcoal, slowing its release. Similar glowing bits like iodine can also stick to metals inside reactors, which can help slow their release during accidents.

Education

Many people are interested in nuclear medicine and power plants, but fewer students are choosing to study nuclear and radiochemistry. This is a concern because many experts in these areas are getting older. To fix this, we need to get more students excited about these careers and offer better training at schools and universities.

Nuclear and radiochemistry is usually taught at universities, often at the Master’s and PhD levels. In Europe, there are efforts to improve education in this field to meet future needs. These efforts are supported by the European Atomic Energy Community. Websites like NucWik offer information and materials for anyone interested in learning more about nuclear and radiochemistry.

Spinout areas

Some tools from nuclear chemistry are now used so widely in regular chemistry and other sciences that they feel like their own separate areas. For example, scientists use special types of atoms, called isotopes, to study how chemicals react and to date rocks and ice.

We can learn about how chemicals react by swapping normal atoms for their heavier twins. This change can slow down or speed up a reaction, helping scientists understand what’s happening at the molecular level.

Isotopes can also help us learn about Earth’s history and even solve crimes. By studying the ratios of certain stable isotopes, scientists can figure out the age of rocks, the diet of ancient people, or even trace the origin of a bullet.

In living things, scientists use isotopes as labels to track how plants and animals process nutrients. For example, a green plant can turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar using sunlight. If we label the oxygen in the water, we can see where that oxygen ends up — in this case, it appears in the oxygen gas the plant releases, not in the sugar it makes.

Radioactive isotopes are especially useful because they can be detected in very small amounts. They glow and can be seen even in tiny pieces of a cell. However, they need careful handling because they can be harmful in large amounts. Scientists have developed quick ways to attach these glowing labels to molecules, which helps in making special images of the body used in hospitals.

Nuclear spectroscopy uses the properties of atoms’ cores to study materials. One common method is called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which uses the spin of atoms to identify molecules and even create detailed images of the inside of a person’s body — often called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in medicine.