An expert at the University of Sheffield
has discovered a novel way to immobilize radioactive forms of iodine
using a microwave.
Iodine radioisotopes are produced by fission of uranium fuel in a
nuclear reactor. Radioactive iodine is of concern because it is highly
mobile in the environment and selective uptake by the thyroid gland can
pose a significant cancer risk following long term exposure. Professor Neil Hyatt, from the University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has now found a way of locking up iodine radioisotopes in a durable, solid material suitable for ultimate disposal, like lead iodovanadinite Pb5(VO4)3I.
The research demonstrates how his simple, inexpensive and rapid method can be done at atmospheric pressure.
Professor Hyatt and his team created a solid material for immobilisation of iodine with the formula Pb5(VO4)3I, by heating a mixture of lead iodide, lead oxide and vanadium oxide.
The key to the method's success is that Pb5(VO4)3I is a poor absorber of 2.45 GHz microwaves, so once this is formed, the sample cannot absorb microwaves, so the temperature does not get high enough for the iodine to volatilise.
The research was published in the Journal of Nuclear Materials (ANI)
