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Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz
Concrete, used in the construction of nuclear power plants (NPPs), may be exposed to radiation emanating from the reactor core. Until recently, concrete has been assumed immune to radiation exposure. Direct evidence acquired on Ar(+)-ion irradiated calcite and quartz indicates, on the contrary, that...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4731743/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26822012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep20155 |
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author | Pignatelli, Isabella Kumar, Aditya Field, Kevin G. Wang, Bu Yu, Yingtian Le Pape, Yann Bauchy, Mathieu Sant, Gaurav |
author_facet | Pignatelli, Isabella Kumar, Aditya Field, Kevin G. Wang, Bu Yu, Yingtian Le Pape, Yann Bauchy, Mathieu Sant, Gaurav |
author_sort | Pignatelli, Isabella |
collection | PubMed |
description | Concrete, used in the construction of nuclear power plants (NPPs), may be exposed to radiation emanating from the reactor core. Until recently, concrete has been assumed immune to radiation exposure. Direct evidence acquired on Ar(+)-ion irradiated calcite and quartz indicates, on the contrary, that, such minerals, which constitute aggregates in concrete, may be significantly altered by irradiation. More specifically, while quartz undergoes disordering of its atomic structure resulting in a near complete lack of periodicity, calcite only experiences random rotations, and distortions of its carbonate groups. As a result, irradiated quartz shows a reduction in density of around 15%, and an increase in chemical reactivity, described by its dissolution rate, similar to a glassy silica. Calcite however, shows little change in dissolution rate - although its density noted to reduce by ≈9%. These differences are correlated with the nature of bonds in these minerals, i.e., being dominantly ionic or covalent, and the rigidity of the mineral’s atomic network that is characterized by the number of topological constraints (n(c)) that are imposed on the atoms in the network. The outcomes have major implications on the durability of concrete structural elements formed with calcite or quartz bearing aggregates in nuclear power plants. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4731743 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-47317432016-02-03 Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz Pignatelli, Isabella Kumar, Aditya Field, Kevin G. Wang, Bu Yu, Yingtian Le Pape, Yann Bauchy, Mathieu Sant, Gaurav Sci Rep Article Concrete, used in the construction of nuclear power plants (NPPs), may be exposed to radiation emanating from the reactor core. Until recently, concrete has been assumed immune to radiation exposure. Direct evidence acquired on Ar(+)-ion irradiated calcite and quartz indicates, on the contrary, that, such minerals, which constitute aggregates in concrete, may be significantly altered by irradiation. More specifically, while quartz undergoes disordering of its atomic structure resulting in a near complete lack of periodicity, calcite only experiences random rotations, and distortions of its carbonate groups. As a result, irradiated quartz shows a reduction in density of around 15%, and an increase in chemical reactivity, described by its dissolution rate, similar to a glassy silica. Calcite however, shows little change in dissolution rate - although its density noted to reduce by ≈9%. These differences are correlated with the nature of bonds in these minerals, i.e., being dominantly ionic or covalent, and the rigidity of the mineral’s atomic network that is characterized by the number of topological constraints (n(c)) that are imposed on the atoms in the network. The outcomes have major implications on the durability of concrete structural elements formed with calcite or quartz bearing aggregates in nuclear power plants. Nature Publishing Group 2016-01-29 /pmc/articles/PMC4731743/ /pubmed/26822012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep20155 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Pignatelli, Isabella Kumar, Aditya Field, Kevin G. Wang, Bu Yu, Yingtian Le Pape, Yann Bauchy, Mathieu Sant, Gaurav Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz |
title | Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz |
title_full | Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz |
title_fullStr | Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz |
title_full_unstemmed | Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz |
title_short | Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz |
title_sort | direct experimental evidence for differing reactivity alterations of minerals following irradiation: the case of calcite and quartz |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4731743/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26822012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep20155 |
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