Tag: radioactive

First ever images of fuel debris fallout particles from Fukushima

First ever images of fuel debris fallout particles from Fukushima

Unique synchrotron visualisation techniques offer new forensic insights into the provenance of radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear accident to understand the sequence of events related to the accident.

In April 2017, a joint team comprising the University of Bristol, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Diamond, the UK’s national synchrotronlight source, undertook the first experiment of its kind to be performed at Diamond.  A small radioactive particle (450μm x 280μm x 250 μm) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in 2011 underwent a comprehensive and independent analysis of its internal structure and 3D elemental distribution, to establish the source of the material and the potential environmental risks associated with it.  

>Read more on the Diamond Light Source website

Image: Fukushima Particles research group (L-R): Cristoph Rau (I13), Yukihiko Satou, (researcher from the Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science, Japan Atomic Energy Agency), with Tom Scott and Peter Martin (University of Bristol).

Long duration experiments reach 1,000th day

Long duration experiments reach 1,000th day

… it was on Diamond’s Long Duration Experimental (LDE) facility, on beamline I11

The experiment, led by Dr Claire Corkhill from the University of Sheffield, has used the world-leading capabilities of the beamline to investigate the hydration of cements used by the nuclear industry for the storage and disposal of waste.

“Understanding the rate at which hydration occurs in cement, a process that can take anywhere up to 50 years, is very important to help us predict the behaviours of cement in the long term,” explained Dr Corkhill.

“These cements are being used to safely lock away the radioactive elements in nuclear waste for timescales of more than 10,000 years, so it is extremely important that we can accurately predict the properties of these materials in the future. The unique facility at Diamond has allowed us to follow this reaction in situ, for 1000 days, and the data is already allowing us to identify particular phases that will safely lock away radioactive elements in 100 years’ time, something we would otherwise not have been able to determine.”

>Read more