Institute for Transuranium Elements
Encyclopedia
The Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) is a European Commission
nuclear
research
institute in Karlsruhe
, Germany
. The ITU is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), a Directorate-General of the European Commission
(EC). The ITU has about 300 staff. Its specialists have access to an extensive range of advanced facilities, many unavailable elsewhere in Europe.
reasons; a person wishing to enter the site as a visitor will be required to hand over their passport
, before passing through a combined metal and radiation detector. The details of the devices used to test visitors for radioactive and nuclear materials are not public knowledge (for security reasons). Also on entry visitors are subject to a search by a security officer. All bags are examined using an x-ray
machine similar to that used in an airport
. The effectiveness of any of these devices is unknown; no explosive devices have been smuggled in (or, at least, not exploded on the site), and nobody has been caught illegally removing radioactive materials from the site.
treatment involving the production of antibodies bearing alpha
emitting radioisotopes which bind to cancer cells. The idea is to create a "magic bullet" which will seek and destroy cancer where ever it is hidden within the body. This treatment has reached clinical trials.
Bismuth
-213 is one of the isotopes which has been used: this is made by the alpha decay of Ac-225. The production of short-lived isotopes from the decay of longer lived isotopes is very useful. This is similar to the generation of technetium
-99m by a technetium cow. The actinium
-225 is made by the irradiation of radium
-226 with a cyclotron
.
and magnetic properties of actinides (such as plutonium
and americium
).
Safety
The ITU is involved in a range of different areas of research within this topic.
In the 2004 annual report from the ITU
some results of the PIE on PHEBUS (FPT2) fuel are reported in section 3.6. PHEBUS is a series of experiments where fuel was overheated and damaged under very strictly controlled conditions, in order to obtain data on what would happen in a serious nuclear power reactor accident.
of uranium dioxide
is studied at the ITU.
of spent nuclear fuel.
for more details. The ITU is involved in both aqueous and pyro separation methods. They have published papers on the DIAMEX process.
See nuclear transmutation
for details.
). The ITU are able to examine environmental samples in order to decide if dangerous levels of radioactive contamination
are present. For instance hot particles found on a beach
in Scotland
near Dounreay
were examined at the ITU.
Much of this work is aimed at the measurement of very low levels of radioactivity; the ITU's analytical service uses ICP-MS
to measure most radioactive isotopes with greater sensitivity than those possible with direct radiometric measurements.
and other law
enforcement organisiations by examining any seized radioactive or nuclear material. Materials are analysed to discover what they are, where they come from, and what possible use they might have been.
A unique feature of the portal is the wide range of user friendly web-based nuclear
science applications. The portal is also ideal for education and training purposes and as a knowledge management platform to preserve nuclear knowledge built up over many decades. The Nucleonica website and applications are supported by a dedicated nuclear science wiki – the NucleonicaWiki and NucleonicaBlog.
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
nuclear
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...
research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
institute in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The ITU is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), a Directorate-General of the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
(EC). The ITU has about 300 staff. Its specialists have access to an extensive range of advanced facilities, many unavailable elsewhere in Europe.
Mission statement
The mission of ITU is to provide the scientific foundation for the protection of the European citizen against risks associated with the handling and storage of highly radioactive material. ITU’s prime objectives are to serve as a reference centre for basic actinide research, to contribute to an effective safety and safeguards system for the nuclear fuel cycle, and to study technological and medical applications of radionuclides/actinides.Security
Normally entry for visitors to the ITU is by prior invitation only for securitySecurity
Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...
reasons; a person wishing to enter the site as a visitor will be required to hand over their passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
, before passing through a combined metal and radiation detector. The details of the devices used to test visitors for radioactive and nuclear materials are not public knowledge (for security reasons). Also on entry visitors are subject to a search by a security officer. All bags are examined using an x-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
machine similar to that used in an airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
. The effectiveness of any of these devices is unknown; no explosive devices have been smuggled in (or, at least, not exploded on the site), and nobody has been caught illegally removing radioactive materials from the site.
Alpha-immunotherapy
A cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
treatment involving the production of antibodies bearing alpha
Alpha
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Alpha or ALPHA may also refer to:-Science:*Alpha , the highest ranking individuals in a community of social animals...
emitting radioisotopes which bind to cancer cells. The idea is to create a "magic bullet" which will seek and destroy cancer where ever it is hidden within the body. This treatment has reached clinical trials.
Bismuth
Bismuth
Bismuth is a chemical element with symbol Bi and atomic number 83. Bismuth, a trivalent poor metal, chemically resembles arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth may occur naturally uncombined, although its sulfide and oxide form important commercial ores. The free element is 86% as dense as lead...
-213 is one of the isotopes which has been used: this is made by the alpha decay of Ac-225. The production of short-lived isotopes from the decay of longer lived isotopes is very useful. This is similar to the generation of technetium
Technetium
Technetium is the chemical element with atomic number 43 and symbol Tc. It is the lowest atomic number element without any stable isotopes; every form of it is radioactive. Nearly all technetium is produced synthetically and only minute amounts are found in nature...
-99m by a technetium cow. The actinium
Actinium
Actinium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Ac and atomic number 89, which was discovered in 1899. It was the first non-primordial radioactive element to be isolated. Polonium, radium and radon were observed before actinium, but they were not isolated until 1902...
-225 is made by the irradiation of radium
Radium
Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
-226 with a cyclotron
Cyclotron
In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...
.
Basic actinide research
Work has included the superconductivitySuperconductivity
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...
and magnetic properties of actinides (such as plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
and americium
Americium
Americium is a synthetic element that has the symbol Am and atomic number 95. This transuranic element of the actinide series is located in the periodic table below the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was named after another continent, America.Americium was first produced in 1944...
).
SafetyNuclear safetyNuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power,...
of nuclear fuel
The ITU is involved in a range of different areas of research within this topic.Accidents
The ITU's work includes the study of fuel behaviour during 'out of control nuclear-reactor' conditions.In the 2004 annual report from the ITU
Itu
Itu is an old and historic municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 was 157,384 and the area is 641.68 km². The elevation is 583 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language, meaning big waterfall. Itu is linked with the highway numbered the SP-75 and are flowed...
some results of the PIE on PHEBUS (FPT2) fuel are reported in section 3.6. PHEBUS is a series of experiments where fuel was overheated and damaged under very strictly controlled conditions, in order to obtain data on what would happen in a serious nuclear power reactor accident.
Waste forms
The long term performance of waste and the systems designed to isolate it from man and his environment are studied here. For instance the corrosionCorrosion
Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...
of uranium dioxide
Uranium dioxide
Uranium dioxide or uranium oxide , also known as urania or uranous oxide, is an oxide of uranium, and is a black, radioactive, crystalline powder that naturally occurs in the mineral uraninite. It is used in nuclear fuel rods in nuclear reactors. A mixture of uranium and plutonium dioxides is used...
is studied at the ITU.
Spent fuel characterisation
The ITU performs Post Irradiation ExaminationPost Irradiation Examination
Post Irradiation Examination is the study of used nuclear materials such as nuclear fuel. It has several purposes. It is known that by examination of used fuel that the failure modes which occur during normal use can be studied...
of spent nuclear fuel.
Partitioning and transmutation
Partitioning is the separation of nuclear wastes into different elements, see nuclear reprocessingNuclear reprocessing
Nuclear reprocessing technology was developed to chemically separate and recover fissionable plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel. Reprocessing serves multiple purposes, whose relative importance has changed over time. Originally reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing...
for more details. The ITU is involved in both aqueous and pyro separation methods. They have published papers on the DIAMEX process.
See nuclear transmutation
Nuclear transmutation
Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one chemical element or isotope into another. In other words, atoms of one element can be changed into atoms of other element by 'transmutation'...
for details.
Measurement of Radioactivity in the environment
The ITU is funded by the European Union, and theoretically has no pronuclear or antinuclear policy. It exists to serve the interests of the whole of the EU. It is well equipped and is considered to be both trustworthy and competent by both the nuclear industry and the environmentalists (such as greenpeaceGreenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
). The ITU are able to examine environmental samples in order to decide if dangerous levels of radioactive contamination
Contamination
Contamination is the presence of a minor and unwanted constituent in material, physical body, natural environment, at a workplace, etc.-Specifics:"Contamination" also has more specific meanings in science:...
are present. For instance hot particles found on a beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
near Dounreay
Dounreay
Dounreay is the site of several nuclear research establishments located on the north coast of Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland...
were examined at the ITU.
Much of this work is aimed at the measurement of very low levels of radioactivity; the ITU's analytical service uses ICP-MS
ICP-MS
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry is a type of mass spectrometry that is highly sensitive and capable of the determination of a range of metals and several non-metals at concentrations below one part in 1012...
to measure most radioactive isotopes with greater sensitivity than those possible with direct radiometric measurements.
Nuclear safeguards
The ITU has a service which assists policePolice
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
and other law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
enforcement organisiations by examining any seized radioactive or nuclear material. Materials are analysed to discover what they are, where they come from, and what possible use they might have been.
NUCLEONICA
The ITU maintains a website for the colloborative study and dissemination of information related to nuclear material and technology. Specifically, NUCLEONICA is a new nuclear science web portal from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. The portal provides a customisable, integrated environment and collaboration platform for the nuclear sciences using the latest internet “Web 2.0” dynamic technology. NUCLEONICA is aimed at professionals, academics and students working with radionuclides in fields as diverse as the life sciences (e.g. biology, medicine, agriculture), the earth sciences (geology, meteorology, environmental science) and the more traditional disciplines such as nuclear power, health physics and radiation protection, nuclear and radiochemistry, and astrophysics.A unique feature of the portal is the wide range of user friendly web-based nuclear
science applications. The portal is also ideal for education and training purposes and as a knowledge management platform to preserve nuclear knowledge built up over many decades. The Nucleonica website and applications are supported by a dedicated nuclear science wiki – the NucleonicaWiki and NucleonicaBlog.
Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart
In addition to the NUCLEONICA website, the Institute for Transuranium Elements manages the various versions and editions of the Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart.Other JRC sites
- Institute for Reference Materials and MeasurementsInstitute for Reference Materials and MeasurementsThe Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements , located in Geel, Belgium, is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre , a Directorate-General of the European Commission ....
(IRMM) - Institute for the Protection and the Security of the Citizen (IPSC)
- Institute for Environment and SustainabilityInstitute for Environment and SustainabilityThe Institute for Environment and Sustainability is a specialised institute of the Joint Research Centre directorate of the European Commission, based at Ispra, Italy...
(IES) - Institute for Health and Consumer ProtectionInstitute for Health and Consumer ProtectionThe Institute for Health and Consumer Protection or IHCP, located in Ispra, Italy, is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre , a Directorate-General of the European Commission ....
(IHCP) - Institute for EnergyInstitute for EnergyThe Institute for Energy or IE, located in Petten, the Netherlands, is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre , a Directorate-General of the European Commission ....
(IE) - Institute for Prospective Technological StudiesInstitute for Prospective Technological StudiesThe Institute for Prospective Technological Studies or IPTS, located in Seville, Spain, is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre , a Directorate-General of the European Commission .- Fields of expertise :...
(IPTS)