Appendix
APPENDIX
Activities and research fields
After reading the following text (or in pdf format here) you will have an overview of the research activities developed in the laboratories of Radiochemistry and Radiation chemistry @POLIMI.
The Laboratories of Radiochemistry and Radiation chemistry are devoted to basic and applied research in the field of nuclear engineering, medical applications and material science.
The activities are funded through national and international research projects (Partitioning And Transmuter Research Initiative in a Collaborative Innovation Action (PATRICIA), EU-project Predis, Augmented CINCH: Augmented CINCH), held in collaboration with important Italian and European universities, research centers, institutions and companies.
Within radiochemistry, the research focuses on the areas of radioanalytical chemistry, nuclear fuel cycle, gen IV reactors and nuclear decommissioning and waste management.
Some experimental activities concern the improvement of analytical procedures for the characterization of different matrices contaminated with natural or artificial radionuclides coming from environmental monitoring or nuclear decommissioning activities.
Within the advanced reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, the researchers are performing focused experiments with radiotracers to develop effective separation processes, feasible at the industrial scale.
Some other research lines are related to developing decontamination processes for radioactive metallic waste produced by nuclear decommissioning, as well as to set new formulations for the confinement of nuclear waste defined as “challenge to manage”.
As concerns radiation chemistry, the research activities are related to the radiation-induced modifications on materials that have undergone high radiation fields, such as those used in nuclear, technological or medical applications. For example, the researchers are studying chemical dosimeters by means of a combined experimental and computational approach, as innovative tools for quality assurance of radiotherapic treatments in nuclear medicine.
The Radiochemistry and Radiation Chemistry Laboratories are fully equipped laboratories for chemical, analytical and radiochemical practices and measurements.
They are organized in two main areas.
- The first one is dedicated to conventional chemical operations, practices, and manipulations of non-radioactive materials.
- The second one is classified as supervised and controlled areas and is specifically devoted to radiochemical practices, where radioactive samples and open radioactive sources could be manipulated.
The laboratories are equipped with complete chemical equipment for sample preparation and instrumentations for radiometric measurements, such as scintillation detectors, gamma and alpha spectrometer and liquid scintillation counters.
They also equipped with high performance analytical instrumentations, such as Inductively Coupled Plasma and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Plasma Mass Spectrometers, useful to determine elemental and isotopic composition of liquid and solid matrices with a very high sensitivity.
The acquired experience and the available experimental equipment are shared to support education and training activities at the European level in the attempt to bring innovative didactical approaches and tools within Nuclear - and Radio-chemistry (MOOC “Essential Radiochemistry for Society”).
As well, the Laboratories support the academic activities within the Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering, the Doctoral programme in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology, and in general for theses and internships.