Potential Applications of Fission Platinoids in Industry

Amounts of fission-generated platinoids, as recovered from high-level liquid radioactive wastes, could considerably supplement amounts of metals claimed from natural sources. Of particular interest are fission palladium and rhodium, which can be decontaminated from other fission products to a non-hazardous level. What remains is intrinsic radioactivity which is weak in fission palladium, and which in fission rhodium decays to an acceptable level after 30 years. The intrinsic radioactivity should not play a negative role when fission platinoids are applied to nuclear technology. Some non-nuclear applications of fission platinoids may be possible, if irradiation and contamination of personnel as well as uncontrolled release of the platinoids, are avoided.