SOME APPLICATIONS OF HYDROUS TUNGSTEN TRIOXIDE IN NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

Cesium was discovered, along with Rb, by Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen in 1860 by spectroscopic study of mineral waters. Its name derives from the Latin caesius, meaning sky blue, referring to the color of its emission spectrum. “Caesium” is the name adopted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry while the American Chemical Society uses “Cesium,” which is also commonly used in North America. Nonradioactive Cs is used in drilling fluids in the oil industry (the largest current use) and also in atomic clocks and various electronics applications [Greenwood and Earnshaw, 1997]. The most frequently studied radionuclides in the environment are the radioisotopes of cesium – 134Cs and 137Cs. Radiocesium (134Cs: t1/2 = 2.06 y, 137Cs: t1/2 = 30.07 y) have been released in the environment by global fallout following atmospheric nuclear explosions, nuclear waste discharges and fallout from the Chernobyl accident. The global pollution of environment and foodstuffs with anthropogenic radionuclides including radiocesium, stimulates the development of methods for their determination in various materials. Nuclear reactors used for production of energy and radioisotopes results in considerable amounts of radioactive wastes in almost all phases of the nuclear fuel cycle. The treatment of radioactive wastes from commercial nuclear plants is one of the major problems in nuclear waste management [Lee et al., 1997]. Some of the important elements in the radioactive waste are cesium, strontium, uranium and transuranium elements such as plutonium and americium [Chen et al., 2002].