Applications of microwaves in. nuclear chemistry and engineering

Microwave chemistry has been developed quickly and has been applied to almost every field of the chemistry over the past decades. With the nuclear renaissance, microwaves have been applied in nuclear chemistry and engineering in recent years. This paper is a brief review about microwave sintering of UO2 pellets, (U, Th)O-2 and MOX powders, conversion of high enriched uranyl (HEU) nitrate into uranium oxide by microwave heating and microwave assisted analysis of radioactive elements. It has been realized that microwave energy has great potential to improve the nuclear fuel process in terms of reduction in required processing time and temperature and increased recovery of elements. However, the application of microwave energy in nuclear chemistry and engineering is in the early stages. Microwave energy has significant advantages that are waiting to be explored. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.