News from across RSC Publishing. Locking up radiotoxicity 02 May
2008 International scientists are using computer simulations to
give insights into the long-term safety of nuclear waste in deep
geological repositories. Under repository conditions, europium
would regularly alternate with calcium and sodium cations It is
particularly important to retain actinides safely because they
have such long radioactive half-lives. One way this is done is
by forming thermodynamically stable solid solutions, where the
solids' cations can be substituted by the actinides preventing
them from leaching out. Victor Vinograd at the Institute of
Geosciences, Frankfurt, Germany, Dirk Bosbach at the Institute
of Nuclear Waste Disposal, Karlsruhe, Germany, and international
collaborators have carried out computer simulations to try to
understand the behaviour of one such solid solution based on
powellite, a naturally occurring mineral, in which some calcium
cations are substituted with sodium and europium. 'Europium has
similar chem