Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Michigan State University
At the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) a plethora of by-product radionuclides will be created that are of immense societal value for a number of disciplines, viz. nuclear medicine, plant biology, material science, astrophysics and stockpile stewardship science. It is an ambitious endeavor to collect these rare radionuclides at sub-nanomolar levels from the vast amount of cooling water, radiochemically purify them, and finally transfer them into a chemical form that is required for the specific applications. So far, the feasibility of ‘isotope harvesting’ was already probed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). The next step will involve a translation towards the conditions at FRIB, where challenges like considerably increased levels of radioactivity, diluted in a greatly larger water volume will be met.
Oct 06, 2023 02:27 am UTC| Science
Each October, the Nobel Prizes celebrate a handful of groundbreaking scientific achievements. And while many of the awarded discoveries revolutionize the field of science, some originate in unconventional places. For...
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