Fission Products (by Element) - Ruthenium-101 To 106

Ruthenium-101 To 106

Plenty of both stable ruthenium and radioactive ruthenium-103 is formed by the fission process. The ruthenium in PUREX raffinate can become oxidized to form ruthenium tetroxide which forms a purple vapour above the surface of the aqueous liquor. The ruthenium tetroxide is very similar to osmium tetroxide, the ruthenium compound is a stronger oxidant which enables it to form deposits by reacting with other substances. In this way the ruthenium in a reprocessing plant is very mobile and can be found in odd places. Also at Chernobyl during the fire the ruthenium became volatile and behaved differently from many of the other metallic fission products. Some of the particles which were emitted by the fire were very rich in ruthenium.

In addition the ruthenium in PUREX raffinate forms a large number of nitrosyl complexes which makes the chemistry of the ruthenium very complex. The ligand exchange rate at ruthenium and rhodium tends to be long, hence it can take a long time for a ruthenium or rhodium compound to react.

It has been suggested that the ruthenium and palladium in PUREX raffinate should be used as a source of the metals .