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Historical annual uranium production and demand. Because early uranium mining was mainly for military purposes, peak production occurred in the 1970s because of high uranium prices and military needs. 10
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During this century, humankind must deal with increasing demand for energy and the growing impact of burning fossil fuels. Nuclear power, which presently produces 14% of global electricity, is a low-carbon-emissions alternative. However, the sustainability of nuclear power depends on the amounts of uranium and thorium available, the economics of th...
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Since the terrorist events of the 11th September 2001, the world as it was once known was changed forever. It was these catastrophic terrorist actions over fifteen years ago that saw the dawn of a new era with heightened security across many everyday areas of society that had not previously witnessed such scrutiny or control. Coupling this elevated...
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... As a target material, 232 Th (4.1103 Bq/g, 110 nCi/g) is widely accessible, not excessively radioactive, and presents fewer radiation risks [74]. Many countries are known to have stocks of tens of kilograms of thorium metal and hundreds of tonnes of thorium oxide or thorium nitrate, which are created every year as a byproduct of rare-earth mining and used to make more thorium metal in large amounts [74,86]. ...
The high energy of α emitters, and the strong linear energy transfer that goes along with it, lead to very efficient cell killing through DNA damage. Moreover, the degree of oxygenation and the cell cycle state have no impact on these effects. Therefore, α radioisotopes can offer a treatment choice to individuals who are not responding to β− or gamma-radiation therapy or chemotherapy drugs. Only a few α-particle emitters are suitable for targeted alpha therapy (TAT) and clinical applications. The majority of available clinical research involves 225Ac and its daughter nuclide 213Bi. Additionally, the 225Ac disintegration cascade generates γ decays that can be used in single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, expanding the potential theranostic applications in nuclear medicine. Despite the growing interest in applying 225Ac, the restricted global accessibility of this radioisotope makes it difficult to conduct extensive clinical trials for many radiopharmaceutical candidates. To boost the availability of 225Ac, along with its clinical and potential theranostic applications, this review attempts to highlight the fundamental physical properties of this α-particle-emitting isotope, as well as its existing and possible production methods.
... Moreover, energy consumption in the future will rise, so the demand for building new nuclear power reactors to meet energy requirements will increase. Consequently, the generation of radioactive waste will be enhanced, owing to the increased use of fuel (uranium and plutonium oxide) to run the reactors (Englert et al., 2012). Radioactive waste is generated from chemical sludges, fission products, reactor decommissioning, and spent nuclear fuel; the radioactive waste or nuclear waste is generally categorized, based on its radioactivity level, as low-level waste (LLW), intermediate-level waste (ILW), and high-level waste (HLW), as summarized in Table 1 (IAEA Safety Standards, 2009). ...
Nuclear energy is considered a clean, reliable, and an inexhaustible energy source for power generation. Nuclear power is harnessed from nuclear fission reactions in a dedicated power plant. The by-products (produced in the nuclear power plant) are radioactive and pose a threat to the environment. The safe disposal of nuclear waste is vital to ensure the sustainable use of the nuclear energy. The immobilization of radioactive waste before final disposal is essential for the interim storage and transportation. This review summarizes the recent work on glass, ceramics, and glass–ceramics matrices to immobilize high-level waste. The synthesis methods, leaching behavior, and radiation resistance of matrices are discussed briefly.
... New 226 Ra sources could be extracted from the waste of current uranium mining operations. Approximately 50 thousand tonnes of uranium ore is mined each year [50], from which 226 Ra is separated and disposed of as waste. With the potential to extract 257 mg of 226 Ra from each tonne of U 3 O 8 [39], this amounts to about 12.85 kg of 226 Ra waste per year. ...
... Unlike 226 Ra (3.7 10 10 Bq/g, or 1 Ci/g), 232 Th (4.1 10 3 Bq/g, 110 nCi/g) is not prohibitively radioactive, poses fewer radiological hazards and is readily available as a target material. Tens of kilograms are known to exist in stockpiles within a number of countries, and more thorium metal is able to be produced in bulk quantities from thorium oxide or thorium nitrate, hundreds of tonnes of which are produced annually worldwide as a by-product of rare-earth mining [50]. This availability means recycling of irradiated 232 Th target material may not be necessary. ...
Background:
The development of radiopharmaceuticals containing 225Ac for targeted alpha therapy is an active area of academic and commercial research worldwide.
Objectives:
Despite promising results from recent clinical trials, 225Ac-radiopharmaceutical development still faces significant challenges that must be overcome to realize the widespread clinical use of 225Ac. Some of these challenges include the limited availability of the isotope, the challenging chemistry required to isolate 225Ac from any co-produced isotopes, and the need for stable targeting systems with high radiolabeling yields.
Results:
Here we provide a review of available literature pertaining to these challenges in the 225Acradiopharmaceutical field and also provide insight into how performed and planned efforts at TRIUMF - Canada's particle accelerator centre - aim to address these issues.
... Hasil studi kelayakan tapak dan non-tapak BATAN rencana pembangunan PLTN di Bangka Barat dan Bangka Selatan, Provinsi Kepulauan Bangka Belitung menunjukkan bahwa PLTN layak dibangun. Kasus yang sama kebijakan pembangunan PLTN di Gunung Muria, Jepara, Provinsi Jawa Tengah. Studi Englert, et. al. (2012) menunjukkan bahwa PLTN berpotensi dalam menutupi kebutuhan listrik secara global meskipun keberlanjutannya akan ditentukan oleh faktor ketersediaan bahan baku dan dukungan politik pemerintah. Dalam konteks Indonesia, sebuah studi (Suleiman, 2013) juga menunjukkan bahwa agenda pembangunan PLTN sejak pemerintahan Orde Baru sebenarnya lebi ...
... l ini sejalan dengan pandangan umum bahwa PLTN memiliki keunggulan sebagai alat mitigasi ancaman perubahan iklim, efisiensi sumber daya dan ketahanan energi. Hal ini karena siklus hidup emisi GRK nuklir sama rendahnya dengan angin, jumlah daya listrik yang dihasilkan, bahan baku uranium yang melimpah, dan risikonya dibesar-besarkan (Kessides, 2010;Englert, et. al. 2012;Suleiman, 2013). Potensi bencana PLTN dalam batas tertentu bahkan lebih kecil dari yang diperkirakan (Kessides, 2012). Dalam sejarah pemanfaatannya, kecelakaan reaktor hanya terjadi pada reaktor dari 14.400 tahun-operasi reaktor secara komersial secara kumulatif, yakni reaktor Chernobyl (1986), Three-Mile Island (1979), Windscale (1957) ...
sPolicy agenda-setting process for the development of nuclear power generation (PLTN), a process which had ever got a strong political endorsement during the preceeding government, has not indicated any significant change. A strong political issue driven by social oppositions arising both from the potential sites of the generation and the people at large, academicians, anti-nuclear movements and small part of the main related stakeholders have indicated that the agenda-setting process into a formal decision remains uncertain. Nevertheless, for the sake of achieving national power security, the development of PLTN agenda remains to be a rational policy in the long run. The government initial efforts to design a roadmap for the national nuclear development indicates that the agenda-setting process will get a more significant support. By using qualitative method and with the focus on the primary and secondary data conducted in the Jepara District, Central Java Province and Pangkal Pinang District, Babel Province, this study aims to to see the dynamic picture of the agenda-setting process for and the feasibility of the PLTN development in the framework for sustaining the power security in the medium and long run. The study shows that (1) the agenda-setting process for the PLTN development has not indicated a strong political will from the government due to limited supports from the public and regional governments, and (2) the feasibility of the PLTN development however remains to become a rational policy option in the long run for sustaining the power security nationally. It is therefore, once the agenda-setting process has come to a formal policy conclusion, the government has to manage serious challenges for its implementation.
... For example, if there were a threefold ramp up of nuclear power this century, it would result in a modest 6% carbon reduction. 35 On the other hand, the exponential uptake of renewables this century will far outstrip 6%. ...
Humans globally consume roughly 15,000 gigawatts (GW) of power, in oil, coal, gas, nuclear, and renewables all added together. To put it another way, it means that, on average, we use 15,000 gigajoules (GJ) of energy every second of every day. That is an enormous number, equivalent to switching on 15 billion electric kettles.
... Nuclear fission produces 14% of the world's electricity supply and could contribute $15% of CO 2 abatement efforts required to stabilize global CO 2 emissions over the next 50 years (Pacala and Socolow, 2004;Englert et al., 2012). The viability of nuclear energy as a CO 2 abatement technology, however, relies in part on the demonstration that geologic storage facilities can isolate high level radioactive waste (HLRW) on time scales commensurate with the decay of long-lived radioactive fission products, on the order of 10 6 years. ...
Clay-rich media have been proposed as engineered barrier materials or host rocks for high level radioactive waste repositories in several countries. Hence, a detailed understanding of adsorption and diffusion in these materials is needed, not only for radioactive contaminants, but also for predominant earth metals, which can affect radionuclide speciation and diffusion. The prediction of adsorption and diffusion in clay-rich media, however, is complicated by the similarity between the width of clay nanopores and the thickness of the electrical double layer (EDL) at charged clay mineral–water interfaces. Because of this similarity, the distinction between ‘bulk liquid’ water and ‘surface’ water (i.e., EDL water) in clayey media can be ambiguous. Hence, the goal of this study was to examine the ability of existing pore scale conceptual models (single porosity models) to link molecular and macroscopic scale data on adsorption and diffusion in compacted smectite. Macroscopic scale measurements of the adsorption and diffusion of calcium, bromide, and tritiated water in Na-montmorillonite were modeled using a multi-component reactive transport approach while testing a variety of conceptual models of pore scale properties (adsorption and diffusion in individual pores). Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were carried out under conditions similar to those of our macroscopic scale diffusion experiments to help constrain the pore scale models. Our results indicate that single porosity models cannot be simultaneously consistent with our MD simulation results and our macroscopic scale diffusion data. A dual porosity model, which allows for the existence of a significant fraction of bulk liquid water—even at conditions where the average pore width is only a few nanometers—may be required to describe both pore scale and macroscopic scale data.
The availability of energy per capita is a crucial parameter to decide the pace of any fast-growing economy along with the sustainability of its energy resources. Considering it, nuclear energy is the most promising source for future energy requirements as the carbon and greenhouse gas emission are almost negligible in comparison to other major energy resources such as fossil fuel and biofuel. In comparison to other promising clean sources namely solar energy and wind energy, nuclear energy provides a clean and continuous flow of energy supply and hence stands for ahead. At present, nuclear energy contributes about 10% of the total electricity of the world which will be projected to be 15% by considering the ongoing projects. The major advantage of nuclear energy is the availability of nuclear fuel and high efficiency with the least carbon emission. However, radioactive nuclear waste management and security concerns have been considered major challenges for future perspectives. This chapter explores the possibility of sustainable development of nuclear energy along with the challenges in this field.
The actinides are thought to have been generated by the rapid neutron capture (r)-process in a supernova at the origin of the solar system (4.6 × 10⁹ an ago) or even before. Thus, given the generation processes for thorium, Th, and uranium, U, (and their precursors) are somewhat similar, the difference in half-lives (²³²Th: 14.05 × 10⁹ a, and ²³⁸U: 4.468 × 10⁹ a) would suggest a larger abundance of Th than U be present today. However, the chemistry of U is very different to that of Th which could suggest different pathways to explain the different concentrations of Th and U in various formations and local deposits of UO2. Focussing on the accessible geosphere of the Earth (i.e., the crust and hydrosphere), the evidence for the presence of these actinide elements in the liquid and solid rocks was examined. This study discusses why, in seawater, soluble Th (5 × 10⁻¹¹ M) is more depleted than U (1.4 × 10⁻⁸ M), and why solid ores of pure UO2 or U3O8 are relatively common while ThO2 deposits are quasi-non-existent. Thorium is rather diluted in rock, relative to uranium, requiring that more mining, milling and treatment is necessary to recover it on comparable scales. This paper discusses and compares the abundances of U and Th in the universe and more specifically in the Earth's accessible geosphere as well as the extent of their known, economically-recoverable resources.
This chapter starts with the general explanation of the state of nuclear energy generation. Nuclear fission is the dominant nuclear energy generation method and both open fuel cycle and closed fuel cycle can be utilized depending on whether the spent fuel is re-cycled or not. Generally, nuclear fuels are abundant for nuclear energy production regardless of the fuel cycle used. Currently, all the commercial reactors are thermal reactors and six different types of Generation IV reactors are being developed. The major challenges of nuclear materials are fuels and cladding materials. Nuclear waste disposal from fission reactors is also a challenging issue and must be addressed for the long term development of nuclear energy. Fusion reactors are being developed but the application is currently in its infancy. Finally, nuclear fusion waste issues are discussed.
