Rare-earth doped glass scintillators effective to spent nuclear fuels through photocatalyst

Abstract

Abstract New rare-earth doped scintillators were grown to change radioactive energies of spent nuclear fuels exhausted out of atomic power plants to UV-light, followed by making absorb into photocatalyst soaked in water to get yield hydrogen gas available to fuel cells and oxygen gas for medical usages. This project requires that the scintillating light should exist in the absorption edge 380 nm in the photocatalyst TiO 2 . Then, glass scintillators instead of single crystals were chosen considering utility for taking a simple, low-cost process with free sizes and forms, even if winking at a fault more or less the decrease of efficiency. The boron-acid salt glass was fabricated melting B 2 O 3 (80%), SrCO 3 (15%) and Na 2 O 3 (5%) doped with one of three pieces of Ce compounds; Ce 2 O 3 /CeCl 3 /CeF 3 (0.05 mol%). A common, broad, intense emission spectrum peaked at 340 nm from 5d band to 2 F gave the strongest intensity for CeF 3 in the doped compounds. After γ-lay irradiation, glass changed color from transparent to brown, and ESR (Electron Spin Resonance) measurements revealed that the E’center (a hole-trapped O-vacancy defect) coupled with a neighboring 11 B ( I = 3/2) nuclear or BOHC (Boron Oxygen Hole Center) was produced as a color center.