Status report on chemonuclear reactors and radiation chemical processing

The use of nuclear energy for the synthesis and production of industrial chemicals is reviewed. Fission-fragment chemonuclear reactors are used for basic endothermic reactors in large capacities. These are applicable to the fixations of nitrogen, synthesis of ozone and synthesis of carbon monoxide from low-cost, readily availably, raw materials. The development of fissiochemonuclear fuel elements, fissiochemistry, the contamination problem, the in-pile loop experiments and the economics of chemonuclear reactors are reviewed. The use of isotopic and machine sources is mainly reserved for exothermic chain-type reactions. These sources range from 60Co, 137Cs, 90Sr to liquid 24Na and In-Ga loops to 0.3 to 20 MeV accelerators. Polymerization, partial oxidation and halogenation have partially reached commercial status. New areas for research include heterogeneous radiation chemistry, cryogenic radiation chemistry, electrode reactions, plastic material combinations, copolymerization and ionic polymerization. (author). 4 refs, 1 fig., 1 tab