Actinides

The potentially destructive aspects of energy release from actinides have been widely discussed by the popular communications media. What is less widely known is that useful energy may be derived from recoverable actinides (uranium and thorium) which is 5 to 20 times as great as the energy available from all recoverable fossil fuels. This fact should establish the economic importance of developing efficient processes for preparing thorium, uranium, plutonium, and their compounds. Molten salt techniques used in studies of actinide compounds are similar to those used in studies of rare-earth and alkaline-earth compounds, but there are important differences. All of the actinides are radioactive, and working with them requires special health protection measures. Another hazard of working with plutonium and enriched uranium is that a critical mass may be inadvertently assembled. Many of the techniques discussed by the author apply equally well to working with nonactinides. Among the topics presented by the author are special enclosures required for actinides, materials problems, microtechniques, techniques for purification of multigram quantities of actinides and their salts, metal preparation and purification, physical properties measurements, absorption spectra, and electrochemistry