Nuclear Chemistry in Science Education
- Forty-Five-Years Experience
Bratislava
Fedor MACÁŠEK
2nd Int.Nuclear Chemistry Congress, Cancún 2008
My background
Moscow State University physical chemistry and
radiochemistry M.S.
Comenius University nuclear chemistry,
separation chemistry
BIONT,a.s.
radiopharmaceuticals,
quality manager
1956-1961
1961-2004
2005-
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Teacher’s questions
• Is nuclear chemistry an ugly child of 20th century
chemistry?
• Does nuclear chemistry contribute to the general
science knowledge?
• Are nuclear chemistry techniques valuable for
present science?
• Does nuclear industry need radiochemists?
• Is nuclear chemistry knowledge any use for
public?
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Evils
Tokai Mura
Hiroshima
Chernobyl
Goiânia
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Litvinenko
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Evils
Industrial accidents were mostly caused
by human factor:
the lack of deeper (if any) knowledge
of nuclear phenomena !!!
Even the simple driving a car
needs training and a license !
(and still more than 3000
people die on the world's
roads every day !!!)
What was the contribution of chemists
to (nuclear) science?
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Hall of Fame
Frederic Soddy
M.Curie-Sklodowska
Harold Urey
Liza Meitner & Otto Hahn`
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Frederic & Irene Joliot-Curie
Glenn Seaborg
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Hall of Fame
George Hevesy
Willard Libby
Fritz Strassmann
Fridrich Paneth
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Vitalyi Khlopin
Albert Ghiorso
Joseph Starik
Ivo Zvára
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What is the position of
nuclear chemistry within chemistry ?
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Behind the boarder of classical
chemistry
• accounts for the chemical consequences of
proton-neutron composition of atom nucleus
• considers chemical element a priori not as the
simplest and stable chemical substance (entity)
but as a mixture of isotopes, and a substance
which internal energy consists from both
electronic and nuclear component
• describes the processes of alteration of chemical
elements, and consequently their compounds.
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Curricula
Euro-baccalaureate
Nuclear Chemistry I
(Understanding radioactivity and ionizing radiation)
1. Properties of atomic nuclei.
2. Radioactive decay.
3. Natural radioactivity (40K, U, Th, Ra, Rn, 14C).
4. Physical, chemical and biological properties of
ionizing radiation.
5. Measurement of radiation.
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Euro-baccalaureate
Nuclear Chemistry II
(Isotope composition of elements and its change)
1. Excitation functions and rate of simple nuclear
reactions.
2. Nuclear activation and NAA. Preparation of
radionuclides in reactor and on cyclotron.
3. Nucleogenesis, pp-, α,-, s- and r-processes.
4. Separation of isotopes. Isotope analysis.
5. Chain fission reaction. Nuclear reactors. Fuel cycle.
Transuranium elements. Nuclear waste processing.
6. Isotope exchange. Isotope indicators and labelled
compounds.
`
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Sources
Textbooks - Classics
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Sklodowska-Curie 1910
Soddy 1911
Hahn 1936
Hevesy, Paneth 1938
Wahl, Bonner 1951
Haissinski 1957
Kamen 1957
Friedlander, Kennedy, Miller 1964
Choppin, Rydberg 1980
Lieser 1995
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Textbooks - Classics
In my student time:
Friedlander, Kennedy 1955
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Textbooks - Classics
• Choppin, Liljenzin, Rydberg 1980, 1995, 2001
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Textbooks – a newest one
Loveland, Morrissey, Seaborg 2006
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Textbooks
by Professor Walter D. Loveland
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Textbooks - Russia
• Старик И.Е. Основы радиохимии. Л., Наука,
1969.
• Нефедов В.Д., Текстер Е.Н., Торопова М.А.
Радиохимия. М., ВШ, 1987
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Textbooks - Czechoslovakia
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•
•
•
Běhounek F., Heyrovský J., 1931
Majer V., 1942, 1961
Tölgyessy J., Varga Š., 1976
Navratil O., Hála J., Kopunec R., Macášek F.,
Mikulaj V., Lešetický L., 1992
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Slovakia - for teachers
Nuclear Chemistry for
Chemistry Teachers
(since 1962!)
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Slovakia - for teachers
Nuclear Chemistry for
Chemistry Teachers
(since 1962!)
24 hrs on the
3rd year of
study
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Practice
General science progress
Break-through into life sciences necessary:
(remember Leo Szilárd:
when opposed to the use of
all nuclear weapons he
devoted himself to studying
molecular biology !)
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Radiochemical practice
Break-through into the life sciences practice is
necessary:
• Natural radioactivity assay (potassium,
radon) ?
• Biochemical cycles ?
• Non-specific DNA labeling ?
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Radiochemical practice
In sixtieths:
A TESLA digital counter
BM353a for labs (about
$1000)
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GM counter for secondary
schools
For $10 without power
supply!
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Radiochemical practice
Needs in a simple equipment for training
(purchase in dosens?!):
• GM-counters
GCK-01 Kit:
Ne + Halogen filled, with a
2mg/cm2 mica end window
Detects
alpha > 3.0 MeV,
beta > 50 KeV,
about $400
gamma > 7 KeV.
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www.imagesco.com/geiger/digital-geiger-counter.html
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Radiochemical practice
Needs in a simple equipment for training
(purchase in dosens?!):
• Liquid scintillation
counters
Triathler
for 3H, 14C, 32P, 33P, 35S
optional gamma counting
NaI well, preset 125I, 51Cr,
58Co
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still $11-13 thousands !
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State-of-the-art
Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
1) materials of nuclear purity (uranium, thorium,
heavy water, zirconium, graphite etc.)
2) recovery of fission materials (239Pu from
uranium and 233U from thorium)
3) materials for fusion reactors (deuterium from
water, tritium from lithium)
4) utilization or transmutation of long-lived fission
and activation products and transuranium
elements
5) reliable fixation of radioactive wastes
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
All these topics of nuclear energy cycle should be
reflected in curricula of all chemistry majors
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Teaching challenges
More attention to progressive applications:
1) radioactive tracers for computer tomography SPECT and PET (radiopharmaceuticals)
2) radioactive tracers for biochemical and
physiological processes, especially for
pharmacodynamics and toxicology
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
1971
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
1990
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
1992
„Status of Nuclear Science Education and
Teaching“
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
2003
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
Many large universities lost their leadership in
nuclear science education, and in large extent
their position was replaced by effort of research
institutions, nuclear societies, and web learning.
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
since 2000
3 of 22 without response (?)
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
(Michigan State University)
2008: none
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
a very passive approach !
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Teaching chemistry in nuclear era
an active approach !
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Non-science major
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Science Major
CERN
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Science Major
Orsay
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Hungary - G.Hevesy‘s country
Budapest University
of Technology and Economics
Very progressive and equilibrated
curricula of nuclear sciences !
http://www.enen-assoc.org/data/document/ne_hungary.pdf
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Ozersk / Озёрск (Маяк)
Chemical technology of contemporary
energetics materials
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Challenges
Specialists breeding
Recent nuclear power reactors technology
will probably need more:
• specialists on cooling systems and spent
fuel storage safety improvements
• specialists on radioactive wastes
• experts on reactors decommisisioning …
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Specialists breeding
UK Report 2003
UK: a gap of 500 graduates per year !
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General science progress
Nuclear power proliferation badly needs:
• a new approach to internal contamination
• co-operation with molecular biologists
in ivestigation of low radiation dosis
effects (treshold dose problem)
• co-operation with botanists and
microbiologists on new approach to
soils decontamination and remediation
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General science progress
• co-operation with molecular biologists
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Targeted education
• Early reproduction of knowledge in new
regional university centers
• Establishment of educational section within
the Nuclear Chemistry Society
• Call to Worldatom, UNICEF and IAEA for
common effort
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Targeted education
Example: IAEA RCA Project
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Targeted education
Example: European Nuclear Society
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Role of nuclear chemistry in
general education
„Nothing in life is to be feared, it is
only to be understood. Now is the
time to understand more, so that
we may fear less.“
M.Sklodowska-Curie
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Nuke in dark colors
These cooling towers are used as an
expressive symbolic presentation of
nuclear power evil.
There is nothing specifically nuclear
about them.
So what? Is ethics unimportant?
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Nuke in dark colors
To see atomic energy only as a means of
destruction is as trivial and absurd ... like
to regard electricity primarily as a source
of energy for the electric chair
Piotr Kapitsa
Nuke in bright colors
We ought a lot to our students and
children to explain that „nuclear“ is
neither a dirty word nor a dirty
practice.
High professionalism and art of
assertiveness must present.
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One good example from Finland (1998):
http://www.kolumbus.fi/wahls/booklist.htm
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and another one (USA, 2003):
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and another one (Russia, 2008):
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Hungary
Dr. Csaba Sükösd: “Lately it has been recognised fortunately that it
is important to include some basic nuclear knowledge already in
secondary education.“
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How can you form goodness, except through
love?
How can people be made free, if they are not
allowed to live in freedom?
How can they made useful without a scientific
knowledge of the forces of nature?
José Martí
Prospects:the quarterly review of comparative education
24, 1/2, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education,
Paris, 1994, p. 107–19
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Hungary
Dr. Csaba Sükösd‘s Story:
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Let’s start from the youth...
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