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Ancient Swedish site may solve nuclear riddle

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Ancient Swedish site may solve nuclear riddle

Ancient Swedish site may solve nuclear riddle

Researchers may turn to an ancient Swedish fort for advice about how to manage nuclear waste that is currently stored at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. Vikings built a massive stone fort at Broborg, which is north of present-day Stockholm. The fort contained a ring of rock that has survived largely intact.

The ancient Vikings used glass and rock to create sturdy fort walls, and that’s caught the attention of researchers who are looking for a way to safely encase radioactive waste for long-term storage. The glass fortifications are particularly interesting because they’ve weathered 1,500 years of exceptional cold, heavy snows and frost heaving without breaking apart.

Studies of the ancient glass have been heartening. The material contains most of the same metal oxides that the researchers intend to use to immobilize the radioactive waste from Hanford.
The plan is to mix the nuclear waste with molten glass and heat the mixture to more than 2,000 degrees. The molten glass will be poured into stainless steel forms and left to harden. The resulting solids will be stored indefinitely.

The glass-rock walls in Sweden were built by Vikings with significant knowledge of metal work. Large rocks were moved into place and the spaces between them were packed with small rocks that the builders knew would melt at relatively low temperatures. The rocks were set ablaze possibly with the use of accelerants of some type, and the melted rocks fused together with the larger rocks, creating an exceptionally durable fortification. Researchers estimate that the Broborg site was built between 375 and 550 AD.

They’re also conducting longevity tests on the newly created radioactive glass to determine how long the glass will keep the materials from leaching into areas around it, and to determine whether more radioactive material can be safely mixed with the glass. The goal is to safely encase the radioactive waste in glass for 10,000 years or more.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. Glassprimer™ glass paint can be used in both interior and exterior applications and can help reduce solar heat gain in some applications. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Les Dunford, via Flickr.com

Radioactive glass gives clues to Moon’s origin

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Radioactive glass gives clues to Moon’s origin

Radioactive glass gives clues to Moon’s origin

Men have probably spent more time contemplating the Moon and its origins than any other celestial body, except perhaps the Sun. Over time, we have concocted dozens of theories about where the Moon came from, but we’ve lacked the evidence to support or disprove most of them. Some unique glass may change all of that.

In July 1945, the first nuclear test – code named Trinity – created a radioactive glass known as “trinitite.” The glass, which extended about 350 meters outward from the blast site, was created from materials on the desert floor at the time of detonation. Trinitite has a green color, and is slightly radioactive, but it also has some unique properties that are similar to those found in moon rocks collected during the Apollo missions.

Some traces of trinitite remain at the original blast site, and the material is thought to be safe to handle, but it is now illegal to scavenge the material. In the 1940’s and 1950’s however, collectors often picked up trinitite and it still circulates among collectors.

But what does trinitite glass have to do with the Moon? A researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego believes that zinc and other inclusions in trinitite mimic what happened during the Moon’s creation. The most popular theory of how the Moon came to be involves a cataclysmic collision between the Earth and a wayward planet-sized body. The collision produced debris, which eventually developed into the structure we know as the Moon.

Zinc and other “volatile elements” vaporize at high temperatures. The trinitite that was created closest to the 1945 blast site is depleted of these volatile elements, while trinitite created farther from Ground Zero contains a higher concentration of volatile elements and less overall depletion. As it turns out, moon rocks show the same depletion of volatile elements as the trinitite closest to the blast site. This supports the theory that a violent, high-temperature event produced the debris that later became our Moon.

While many people would argue that nothing good has come from the nuclear age, it is possible to use the residual materials from the blast to help us understand more about our planet, and moon formation in our universe.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. Glassprimer™ glass paint can be used in both interior and exterior applications and can help reduce solar heat gain in some applications. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Mouser Williams, via Flickr.com

Glass could contain radioactive waste

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Glass could contain radioactive waste

Glass could contain radioactive waste

Researchers at Rutgers have determined that certain radioactive isotopes could safely be encased in glass for long-term storage. The scientists were working with iodine-129, which is particularly persistent. By encasing the iodine in ceramics and glass, they were able to isolate the dangerous element, store it at room temperature and store it indefinitely.

Without containment, iodine-129 disperses easily into the air and water. In humans, iodine-129 can easily damage sensitive organs and tissues, and is known to cause cancer. Iodine-129 has a half-life of nearly 16 million years, which means, practically speaking, that it will never achieve a human-safe state.

The US Department of Energy was one of the primary funding sources for the research. The DOE hopes to use the findings to address the broader issue of radioactive waste containment and disposal. Although the Rutgers research has concentrated on radioactive iodine, the method may be useful in encapsulating other forms of radioactive waste, including spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants. Currently, spent fuel rods are stored in place at nuclear power plants. Being able to dispose of the exhausted rods safely could make nuclear power more attractive.

Glass is an exceptionally versatile material, and because it is inert, it can perform in a wide number of applications. Glass can be used in containers, and as a surface for either countertops or walls.

Using specialized coatings like Glassprimer™ glass paint, glass can also be painted virtually any color. Backpainted glass can serve in virtually any environment. By applying paint directly to plain glass or tempered glass, you can liven up any room. It offers complete stain resistance, durability and cleans (and sanitizes) easily using ordinary household cleaners.

Best of all, Glassprimer™ glass paint is cost effective. You can achieve your desired coverage for about $1 per square foot.

If you’d like more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Albert Kruger/U.S. Department of Energy

Radioactive glass in Fukushima

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Radioactive glass in Fukushima

Radioactive glass in Fukushima

The earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan in March 2011 would have been big enough on their own, but the disaster was magnified by the fact that the natural disaster disrupted the operations of a nuclear power plant in ways that no one had foreseen. New research shows that the impact of that disaster continues today.

Glass particles landed in Tokyo

The earthquake and tsunami flooded the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing the release of radioactive Cesuim isotopes from the plant over the course of several days. Researchers have concluded that Tokyo, which is more than 200 km away from Fukushima, was dusted in radioactive glass microparticles created when the plant’s reactors melted down, and those particles hung around much longer than organic materials would have.

Cesium is water-soluble, and many scientists thought that it posed a lower danger because it could be washed out of the environment by rain. Because glass is inert and the radioactive Cesium was encapsulated in the “glassy soot” from the plant, the rain did not wash away the radioactive glass particles as it would have organic materials. That means the only avenues for removal of the radioactive glass soot would have been direct removal of the contaminated soot or direct washing.

Scientists examined air filters that captured some of the glass particles created during the meltdown. Based on their analysis, the particles were nearly as radioactive in Tokyo as they were when they left Fukushima.

Removing potentially contaminated soil was part of the remediation plan for the affected area, so much of the radioactive glass was eventually removed. The findings are significant enough to make the researchers rethink their approach to monitoring the effects of nuclear contamination on humans. Their concern is for the health of the people affected by the fallout. People inhaled encapsulated Cesium glass microparticles, which proved to be super effective at maintaining so much of their radioactive payload. Knowing that glass particles have a “protective” effect on nuclear radation (even the water soluble kind) allows scientist to better evaluate the immediate and long-term impacts of such an accident on human health.

At GlassPaint.com, we don’t recommend that you inhale anything but fresh air. That’s why we’ve made our Glassprimer™ glass paint a low-VOC formula. By eliminating VOC in our paints, we’ve made it easier and more pleasant to work with Glassprimer™ glass paint indoors. If you’d like more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Tamaki Sono, via Flickr.com