Chernobyl particles reveal unexpectedly stable nuclear fuel after 40 years
Chernobyl fuel particles studied by German researchers appear more chemically stable than expected after 40 years.
Researchers at Leibniz University Hannover and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf examined six microscopic radioactive fuel fragments released by the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction found the sampled fuel crystal structures largely intact after 40 years, suggesting greater chemical stability than previously assumed. The authors caution that six particles from two locations cannot support broader health-risk claims or lifting exclusion-zone restrictions.
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From the original article
4 min read at phys.org
Hot particle from the 1986 reactor accident: The nuclear fuel particle is partially fused with zirconium oxide. Credit: Laura Stalmann Four decades after the 1986 nuclear disaster, researchers at Leibniz University Hannover and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) examined six tiny, highly radioactive fragments that were released from the destroyed reactor in Ukraine in the wake of the incident.
By geox · phys.org
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