Durable Self-Glowing Crystals as Advanced Materials for Actinide Immobilization
- PDF / 752,922 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 595.22 x 842 pts (A4) Page_size
- 39 Downloads / 243 Views
Durable Self-Glowing Crystals as Advanced Materials for Actinide Immobilization Boris E. Burakov1, Maria V. Zamoryanskaya2 and Yana V. Domracheva2 1 V.G. Khlopin Radium Institute, 28, 2-nd Murinskiy Ave., St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia 2 Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, 26, Polytechnicheskaya Street, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia ABSTRACT Some crystals doped with radionuclides glow in the dark. Such materials are prospective for certain industrial scale applications. Durable self-glowing crystalline solids, which were initially suggested for development of actinide waste forms, are considered as advanced materials. Wellknown durable actinide host phases, such as zircon, xenotime, and monazite are main focus of current research. Single crystal samples of these host phases doped with 239Pu, 238Pu, 241Am and 237 Np have been grown by flux methods. It is demonstrated that incorporation of small amounts of non-radioactive elements such as Eu, In and Tb increases the self-glowing intensity. The optimal content of such luminescence ions supporting intensive glowing of 238Pu-doped zircon and xenotime has, at first, been identified by cathodoluminescence study of non-radioactive samples. Subsequently, the results of this study were used to grow intensively glowing crystals of zircon and xenotime doped with 0.01 wt. % and 0.1 wt.% 238Pu, respectively.
INTRODUCTION The admixture of radionuclides, in particular alpha-emitters, in some solids may initiate scintillation or glowing of their matrices [1-4]. Scintillation is a process in which a material produces luminescence following absorption of radiation. We have suggested to use term “selfglowing” [2,4] in order to distinguish scintillation initiated by the decay of certain radionuclides, which are incorporated in solid matrix in the form of solid solution, from the luminescence excited under any external radiation from radioactive [5], ultraviolet, infrared, electron, or laser beam sources. The single alpha-particle is characterized by energy that is high enough to excite dozens of luminescence centers. The luminescence centers might be produced by activating elements (Eu, Tb, etc.) or intrinsic defects caused by different reasons including some chemical admixtures (In, etc.). Stable solid materials with low radionuclide content but intensive self-glowing are interesting for certain industrial scale application. The most important requirement to the wide use of self-glowing materials is their durability in environment. Thus, crystalline materials with high chemical resistance, mechanical durability, and stability under self-irradiation are very promising light sources that potentially can find applications in optical couplers, robotics and medicine. Moreover, intensive light emission might be converted into electric current that allows development of reliable “nuclear” batteries. Such nuclear batteries can potentially be used in aggressive chemical media as well as for applications in space for dozens to hundreds of years.
Development of
Data Loading...
