α-ParticIes as Detonators

Henderson, G. H.

doi:10.1038/109749a0

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The primary concern with NCl 3 , NBr 3 , NI 3 , and NH 4 I 3 is that they are known contact explosives ( Matyáš and Pachman, 2013 ); NF 3 is not a contact explosive but it is both a toxic gas and greenhouse gas with high global warming potential ( Tsai, 2008 ). Contact explosives are highly unstable materials that can react or explode violently when exposed even to very small amounts of external energy (e.g., gentle contact, sound, α particles, light, spark discharge, mild heating) or strong light and can do so in the absence of oxygen (e.g., in an inert glovebag, glovebox, or hot cell) ( Henderson, 1922 ; Meerkämper, 1954 ; Bowden, 1958 ; Fedoroff et al, 1975 ; Matyáš and Pachman, 2013 ). These high-energy reactions can proceed to produce diatomic halide gases [e.g., I 2(g) ] along with other byproducts documented through experimentation (or proposed) in Eqs 9 – 11 ( Holleman and Wiberg, 2001 ) and are often used in chemistry demonstrations for students.…”

Section: Dehalogenation Reactions and Byproductsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dehalogenation reactions between halide salts and phosphate compounds

Riley

Chong

2022

Front. Chem.

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Reactions between phosphoric acid [H3PO4] or ammonium hydrogen phosphates [i.e., NH4H2PO4, (NH4)2HPO4] and halide salts can be used to dehalogenate (remove halides from) salt-based waste streams, where the process of removing halides yields products that have more efficient disposal pathways for repository storage. In this context, the term efficiency is defined as higher waste loadings and simplified immobilization processes with potential for recycle of certain salt components (e.g., 37Cl as H37Cl or NH437Cl). The main streams identified for these processes are nuclear wastes generated during electrochemical reprocessing of used nuclear fuel as well as used halide salts from molten salt reactor operation. The potential byproducts of these reactions are fairly consistent across the range of halide species (i.e., F, Cl, Br, I) where the most common are hydrogen halides [e.g., HCl(g)] or ammonium halides (e.g., NH4Cl). However, trihalide compounds (e.g., NCl3), nitrogen triiodide ammine adducts [NI3·(NH3)x], and ammonium triiodide (NH4I3) are also possible. Several of these byproducts (i.e., NCl3, NBr3, NI3, and NH4I3) are shock-sensitive contact explosives so their production in these processes must be tracked and carefully controlled, which includes methods of immediate neutralization upon production such as direct transport to a caustic scrubber for dissolution. Several benefits arise from utilizing H3PO4 as the phosphate additive during dehalogenation reactions for making iron phosphate waste forms including more oxidized iron (higher Fe3+:Fe2+ ratios), higher chemical durabilities, and the avoidance of trihalides, but the byproducts are hydrogen halides, which are corrosive and require special handling.

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