Spent nuclear fuel chemical composition

Once the radioactive fission products are isolated by one of the separation processes, the major problem in the nuclear chemical industry must be faced since radioactivity cannot be immediately destroyed (see Fig. 10-7c for curie level of fission-product isotopes versus elapsed time after removal from the neutron source). This source of radiation energy can be employed in the food-processing industries for sterilization and in the chemical industries for such processes as hydrogenation, chlorination, isomerization, and polymerization. Design of radiation facilities to economically employ spent reactor fuel elements, composite or individually isolated fission products such as cesium 137, is one of the problems facing the design engineer in the nuclear field. 

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