Synthesis of Precious Metals - Palladium

Palladium

Palladium is also produced by nuclear fission in small percentages, amounting to 1 kg per ton of spent fuel. As opposed to rhodium and ruthenium, palladium has a radioactive isotope, 107Pd, with a very long half-life time of 6.5 million years, so palladium produced in this way has a very low radioactive intensity. Mixed in with the other isotopes of palladium recovered from the spent fuel, this gives a radioactive dose rate of 7.207x10−5 Ci, which is well below the safe level of 1x10−3 Ci. Also, 107Pd has a very low decay energy of only 33 KeV, and so would be unlikely to pose a hazard even if pure.

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