New Day of Radiochemistry

New Day of Radiochemistry

As a branch of modern science, radiochemistry is a relatively young field of research and development dating back to 1896.

• However, this discovery largely determined the further routes of human civilization development.
• Since the end of 1940s, research and development in the field of practical application of nuclear radiation, mainly for military purposes, has become explosive.
• The nuclear projects implemented in the USSR and the USA served as the stimulus and driving force for achievements in various fields of science and technology and determined the human development in the 20th century.
• In 1956, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) was founded in Dubna to study the fundamental properties of the matter.

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

The leading scientists who participated in the Soviet nuclear project formed the basic scientific framework in the country.

• A project aimed at the synthesis of new transuranium elements of the Mendeleev Periodic Table was launched under the supervision of G.N.Flerov, future academician B.F.Myasoedov.

• Seventeen new elements with atomic numbers from 102 to 118 have been synthesized during the last 60 years, and nine of them, were synthesized at the JINR, including five new superheavy elements in the last 10 years.

G.N.Flerov B.F.Myasoedov

In 2012, the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) approved the names Flerovium (Fl) and Livermorium (Lv) for new superheavy elements with atomic numbers 114 and 116 ('the first birds from the stability island') in the recognition of the laboratories that participated in their synthesis.

The Role of Radiochemistry

• The role of radiochemistry is to develop methods for production and purification of radionuclides for nuclear medicine and to study properties of radiopharmaceuticals and routes of their target delivery.

• It is difficult to overestimate the role of radiochemistry in the research of new elements - actually, a new research field, 'single atom chemistry of superheavy elements', has been established at the JINR. It includes the chemical identification of superheavy elements, the study of their chemical properties and contributions of the relativistic effects as well as the more specific elucidation of the nuclear properties of superheavy elements.

The Industrial Application of Nuclear Power

In 1954 when the first nuclear power plant with electric power of 5 MW was lauched in the USSR. In Russia, 33 nuclear units were in operation at ten nuclear power plants by the end of 2014 with total electric power of 23.6 GW, which is approximately 13% of the bulk energy production in Russia.

The Problem of Management of SNF and RW

• One of the factors that have adverse effect on the further development of nuclear power engineering is the problem of management of accumulated spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and radioactive wastes (RW) . Due to the high radiation hazard and chemical toxicity, high-level wastes after fractionation need to be immobilized into a safer state for further storage or disposal.
• The choice of the matrix material for immobilization of RW depends on the chemical and radionuclide composition of these wastes. A variety of materials are suitable for these purposes including cements, glasses and mineral-like matrices.

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky

• As was predicted by V.I.Vernadsky, the human civilization entered the phase of global impact on the environment. The extensive development of nuclear industry brought about the beginning of the third stage of nuclear science development. During this stage, the environmental protection problems come to the fore. This is associated with the development of new effective methods of RW management and environmental protection from radioactive contamination.

Study of the Physicochemical

Species of Radionuclides

• The research tasks of the radiochemistry are not only to determine the bulk concentrations of radionuclides in the samples collected in the environment but also to study the physicochemical species of radionuclides, which dictate their migration behavior.

The Nuclear Medicine

In the new century, nuclear medicine is a rapidly developing and promising line of research in the field of radiochemistry.

There are modern diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for numerous socially significant diseases :

• cancer
• cardiological diseases
• neurological diseases

These diseases are related to the delivery of radionuclides to the target cells using various molecular vectors like peptides, monoclonal antibodies, module nanotransporters, etc.

Thank you for attention!