The radiochemistry, a multi-disciplinary science for the 21. century

The basic radiochemistry occupies an avant-garde place in inorganic chemistry. It covers a very vast multi-disciplinary field, important for about 40% of the periodic table. It allows understanding better the periodic classification and it is directly connected with various disciplines: metal physical chemistry, solid compounds, solutions, thermodynamics, etc. The applications are also multi-disciplinary, mainly in nuclear industries but also in analysis, geology, biochemistry, medicine, archaeology, astrophysics. This report is a short variant of the document delivered in 1988 for CNRS. It treats neither all the aspects of radiochemistry or the priorities in this field but points out the main directions of this discipline and the fields of research which should be studied in more details. The content is as follows: - Introduction; - I. Definition and radiochemistry's domain of action; - II. The actinides constitute a particularly interesting series of the periodic table; - III. Research on actinides to be developed; III.1 Metals; III.2 Solid compounds; III.3 Gas compounds; III.4 Chemistry in solution (water ions, oxidation degrees, thermodynamic properties, chemical species in solution, non-aqueous media, chemical kinetics, chemistry at the atom scale); IV. Other radioelements; IV.1 The trans-actinide elements; IV.2 The long-lived fission products; V. Radiochemical methods; VI. Study of the 4f and 5f elements is interesting from the point of view of physico-chemical theories; VII. The heavy elements are implied in the nuclear power production; VII.1 Reprocessing the nuclear fuels; VII.2 Waste management; VIII. Conclusions