After the severe accident in the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, a large amount of contaminated stagnant water has been produced in turbine buildings and surrounding areas. This rapid communication reports the calculation of the radionuclide inventory in the core, the collection of the measured inventory in the stagnant water, and the estimation of the radionuclide release ratios from the core to the stagnant water. The present evaluation is based on data obtained before June 3, 2011. It was revealed that the release ratios of tritium, iodine and cesium were several tens of percent, while those of strontium and barium were smaller by one or two orders of magnitude. These release ratios of the Fukushima accident were equivalent to those of the TMI 2 accident.

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Stereochemical substitution on tripod ligand significantly offered efficient separation of trivalent actinides from trivalent lanthanides. Liquid–liquid extraction using chiral tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine ligands as an extractant exhibited high efficiency and selectivity for trivalent actinides. A combination of chiral ligand and 2-bromodecanoic acid further enhanced extraction performance for trivalent actinides.

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The synergistic extraction of aluminium(III) and gallium(III) with 2,4-pentanedione (Hacac) in heptane from a weakly acidic solution was investigated in the presence of 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenol (BTMP). A large enhancement of the extraction of metal(III) was ascribed to the formation of outer-sphere complexes between metal(III) chelates and BTMP in the organic phase. Furthermore, an IR study demonstrated that the outer-sphere complexes were formed by the hydrogen bond between the hydroxy hydrogen atom of BTMP and the oxygen atoms of metal(III) chelates. The formation constants of the outer-sphere complexes with BTMP were determined and compared with those with 3,5-dichlorophenol (DCP) to understand the steric effect of the phenol derivative in this synergistic extraction. The bulky trifluoromethyl-group of BTMP and the short oxygen–oxygen nonbonded distance of Al(acac)3 resulted in a steric repulsion between two BTMP molecules to prevent the formation of Al(acac)3·3BTMP, although Al(acac)3·3DCP, Ga(acac)3·3BTMP, and Ga(acac)3·3DCP could be formed. Such a steric effect on outer-sphere complexation improves the separation efficiency between aluminium(III) and gallium(III) in the present synergistic extraction.

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