Производство редких драгоценных металлов из ядерных отходов

Production of rare lustrous high conductivity elements
The synthesis of precious metals involves the use of either nuclear reactors or particle accelerators to produce these elements.

Ruthenium and rhodium are precious metals produced as a small percentage of the fission products from the nuclear fission of uranium. The longest half lives of the radioisotopes of these elements generated by nuclear fission are 373.59 days for ruthenium and 45 days for rhodium. This makes the extraction of the non radioactive isotope from spent nuclear fuel possible after a few years of storage, although the extract must be checked for radioactivity from trace quantities of other elements before use.

Each kilogram of the fission products of 235U will contain 63.44 grams of ruthenium isotopes with halflives longer than a day. Since a typical used nuclear fuel contains about 3% fission products, one ton of used fuel will contain about 1.9 kg of ruthenium. The 103Ru and 106Ru will render the fission ruthenium very radioactive. If the fission occurs in an instant then the ruthenium thus formed will have an activity due to 103Ru of 109 TBq g−1 and 106Ru of 1.52 TBq g−1. 103Ru has a half life of about 39 days meaning that within 390 days it will have effectively decayed to the only stable isotope of rhodium, 103Rh, well before any reprocessing is likely to occur. 106Ru has a half life of about 373 days, meaning that if the fuel is left to cool for 5 years before reprocessing only about 3% of the original quantity will remain; the rest will have decayed. ), but the cost of the separation of the rhodium from the other metals needs to be considered, although recent high prices may create opportunity for consideration. In 1924, a German scientist, Adolf Miethe, reported achieving the same feat, but after various replication attempts around the world, it was deemed an experimental error. In 1980, Glenn Seaborg transmuted several thousand atoms of bismuth into gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. His experimental technique was able to remove protons and neutrons from the bismuth atoms. Seaborg's technique was far too expensive to enable the routine manufacture of gold but his work is the closest yet to emulating an aspect of the mythical Philosopher's stone.