A new use of a rare element

Groundbreaking research conducted by a team of chemists on a marginal element in the periodic table could change the way the world stores radioactive waste and recycles radioactive fuel.

Groundbreaking research conducted by a team of chemists on a marginal element in the periodic table could change the way the world stores radioactive waste and recycles radioactive fuel.

The element is called californium and bears the symbol Cf in the periodic table of the elements. As part of particularly sophisticated experiments, Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt, and his research team from Florida State University, found that this element has miraculous abilities to bind to and separate from other substances. The researchers also found that the element is particularly resistant to radiation damage. The lead researcher says the discoveries could help scientists develop new storage containers for radioactive waste, as well as help separate radioactive fuel while increasing its recycling rate.

"It has real-world applications," the researcher said. "This is not just an academic idea." The research findings were recently published in the scientific journal Nature Chemistry. At the same time, performing the experiments and collecting the data was not an easy task. After several years of cooperation with the US Department of Energy, the researcher was able to produce 5 mg of californium at a cost of 1.4 million dollars. However, this tiny and precious amount of the element opens a window to a new world in the field of nuclear chemistry. "We are changing the way people look at the element californium and how it can be exploited," says the lead researcher.

Although all the experiments were conducted at Florida State University, the researchers also collaborated with chemists working in the field of theoretical chemistry from nine research bodies in the world (universities and research institutes), including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which provided the element itself. Researcher David A. Dixon, a professor of chemistry at the University of Alabama, contributed the calculations and theory as to why californium is able to bond in a unique way, while scientists at Argonne National Laboratory helped formulate the fit between the theory and the experimental results. Additional scientists from Germany have provided improved insights into the atomic structure of the element californium.

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