Depleted zinc oxide

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Depleted zinc oxide (English Depleted Zinc Oxide ), short DZO is a term from nuclear technology .

Zinc oxide is added to the cooling water of boiling water reactors in order to improve the corrosion behavior of the components that come into contact with the cooling water. The amount of corrosion products, including radioactive corrosion products, which inevitably get into the cooling water, is thereby reduced, and accordingly also the radiation of the cooling circuit components after prolonged operation of the reactor, which comes from deposited corrosion products. This leads to a lower dose exposure for the personnel during maintenance work etc.

Unfortunately, however, the in natural is isotope mixture of zinc (48.6% 64 Zn 27.9% 66 Zn 4.1% 67 Zn 18.8% 68 Zn 0.6% 70 Zn) isotope contained 64 Zn Reactor converted into the radioactive isotope 65 Zn by neutron capture . This (more precisely: its daughter nuclide 65 Cu) emits a relatively hard gamma radiation (approx. 1.1  MeV ).

In DZO the proportion of the main isotope 64 Zn is drastically reduced (to <1%). As a result, less 65 Zn is formed and the radiation from the components of the cooling circuit is further reduced.

literature

  • Borisevich, Valentin & Pavlov, AV & Okhotina, IA: Depleted zinc: Properties, application, production. In: Applied radiation and isotopes: including data, instrumentation and methods for use in agriculture, industry and medicine. 67. 1167-72. 10.1016 / j.apradiso.2009.02.063. ( Online version at ResearchGate )