Radiochemistry, Vol. 43, No. 5, 2001, pp. 5453547. Translated from Radiokhimiya, Vol. 43, No. 5, 2001, pp. 4793480. Original Russian Text Copyright C 2001 by Egorov, Betenekov.
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ On 50th Anniversary of the Radiochemistry Chair, Ural State Technical University3UPI
Voznesenskii’s School Yu. V. Egorov and N. D. Betenekov Ural State Technical University3Ural Polytechnic Institute, Yekaterinburg, Russia Received January 10, 2001
At the Physicotechnical Faculty founded in 1949 at the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI; now Ural State Technical University, UGTU) was organized the Chair of Chemistry and Technology of Rare Elements (KhTRE), which was headed by the organizer of the faculty and its first dean E.I. Krylov. Since the goal of the faculty was training engineers for nuclear science, the necessity of comprehensively teaching radiochemistry was quite obvious. The first lectures on radiometry and radiochemistry were delivered by Ural electrochemist M.V. Smirnov who had a rare, at that time, experience in using radioactive tracers in scientific research. The practical course of this subject was organized at the Laboratory of Radiochemistry and Radiometry incorporated in the KhTRE chair. The Radiochemistry Chair was established fifty years ago in 1951 on the base of this laboratory. The scientific team of the Radiochemistry Chair formed only in 1955 when Sergei Aleksandrovich Voznesenskii was invited to head it. Voznesenskii was an Acad. N.A. Shilov’s disciple, an inorganic chemist, physical chemist, and engineer. When the Soviet atomic industry was set up in Ural, he, same as N.V. Timofeev-Resovskii, treated the problem of management of liquid radioactive wastes, namely, their most difficultly predictable kind, nonprocess wastes (bath and laundry effluents, trap water, water from decontamination, etc.). At that time there was no experience in development of decontamination flowsheets for such wastes. The applied radioecology started practically from nought, and pioneering studies in this field were performed by Voznesenskii and his disciples (L.I. Baskov, P.F. Dolgikh, A.A. Konstantinovich) at the Mayak Plant in Ozersk in the early 1950s. Development of a process for decontamination of low- and intermediate-level effluents was at that time a large achievement, and such processes were later called [adaptable processes.] For example, ionexchange resins and procedures of cryotechnology (freezing3thawing of hydrated precipitates used as versatile sorbents) were utilized for decontamination purposes for the first time. Voznesenskii’s works
revealed the sense and prospects of research in the poorly studied and quite unpopular field of applied radiochemistry and radioecology: decontamination of radioactive effluents of nuclear industry. These studies were complicated, in particular, by insufficient understanding of the relationships in migration and distribution of radionuclides in low concentrations in natural systems. The role of precipitation, bottom sediments, and speciation of microcomponents in solution was unclear. Without understanding of these diverse processes of phase distribution, it was impossible to develop and improve processes for decontamination of radioactive effluents. With time, this general goal gave rise to a number of specific research directions and problems. Despite classical works of V.G. Khlopin’s and O. Hahn’s schools, no satisfactory theory was developed to describe coprecipitation of radioactive microcomponents with hydrate collectors (iron hydroxides, hydrated manganese dioxides, etc.). After the death of I.E. Starik, there was also a pause in studies of the state of microcomponents (in particular, radiocolloids). At the same time, a need arose in preparing or finding among natural substances highly selective and specific sorbents for removal from aqueous solutins of artificial radionuclides such as radioisotopes of cesium, strontium, cerium, ruthenium, and other elements. These tasks set the field of long-term studies of the research team of the chair. Voznesenskii opened a post-graduate studentship at the chair and organized, for the first time in Russia, the training of engineers in the field of decontamination of radioactive industrial effluents on the base of the technological specialty of the chair of rare metals. The first candidate’s dissertations were sustained by V.F. Bagretsov and V.V. Pushkarev; these works initiated the search for the best sorbents for applied radioecology. The Bagretsov’s dissertation on the use of semiburned dolomite was one of the first in Ural studies of sorption properties of natural substances for this purpose. Pushkarev systematically studied
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natural inorganic sorbents, in particular, iron hydroxide; his later works were devoted to foam chromatography. The last Voznesenskii’s disciple was V.V. Vol’khin who was first to make a detailed study of the effect of freezing3thawing of hydrated amorphous precipitates (e.g., iron hydroxide) as sorbents for decontamination of radioactive wastes. This procedure appeared to be useful both for reducing the volume of radioactive slurries to be disposed of and for granulating inorganic sorbents of various compositions. Later, being the head of the Chair of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Perm State Technical University, Vol’khin set up the first in Russia Intercollegiate Pilot Plant for production of granulated inorganic sorbents, some of which found use in radiochemistry and hydrometallurgy. After Voznesenskii returned to Moscow (he died there in 1958), the chair was headed for seven years by V.D. Puzako and then by Pushkarev. Since 1974 till 1999 the chair was headed by Yu.V. Egorov (for several years within this period the Radiochemistry Chair and the KhTRE Chair were united again), and then, by N.D. Betenekov. The chair inherited from Voznesenskii the interest in the physical chemistry of heterogeneous systems, in the technology of synthesis of specific and selective inorganic sorbents with preset properties, and in the theory of phase distribution of substances dissolved in water. The results of these studies were mainly published in Radiokhimiya (Radiochemistry), and also in several monographs. The problem of management of liquid radioactive wastes, which consolidated young scientists of the chair at the beginning of its history, stimulated the progress of applied research in the other fields using similar sorption systems. For example, in 1970s, in cooperation with the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, the staff of the chair took part in development of quick procedures for determination of the radionuclide composition of water in open reservoirs. For this purpose were utilized thin-layer inorganic sorbents. Their preparation procedures were developed at the Radiochemistry Chair in cooperation with the Chair of Physical and Colloidal Chemistry of UPI (Yu.V. Egorov, V.D. Puzako, G.A. Kitaev, N.D. Betenekov, V.I. Popov, Yu.G. Cheremukhin, E.V. Polyakov, V.P. Remez, A.P. Ryzhen’kov, A.N. Gubanova, E.G. Pecherskhikh, E.G. Ipatova, V.V. Kaftailov, T.A. Nedobukh, E.I. Denisov, and A.V. Voronina). The procedures initially developed for studying seawater after appropriate
modification were made suitable for analyzing aqueous solutions of other compositions (certain process solutions, fresh water of open reeservoirs). These procedures were widely used in overcoming consequences of the Chernobyl accident and in examining the zone of the East Ural radioactive fallout. Thin-layer sorbents were also successfully used for analytical and technological purposes at the Institute of Chemistry, Far Eastern Division, Russian Academy of Sciences (Vladivostok); Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna); and Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics, Russian Federal Nuclear Center (Snezhinsk). Also, thin-layer inorganic sorbents were put into operation at the Kadamdzhai Antimony Plant (Uzbekistan) for sorption recovery of gold. The impact of Voznesenskii’s ideas was so strong and long-term that all his first- and second-generation disciples still adhere to environmentally oriented applied chemistry, despite the fact that some of them, owing to certain circumstances, abandoned radioactive systems. Furthermore, having started with radiochemical and radioecological research, many graduates and staff memberes of the Radiochemistry Chair, even after leaving the Physicotechnical Faculty, still continue studying general problems of applied ecology. Their radiochemical training allowed them to gain a deep insight into the interphase mass transfer and distribution on the substance, element, and nuclide levels. At present, several chairs and laboratories are associared with the Voznesenskii’s name and activity. For example, the Vol’khin’s Chair of General Chemistry (Perm State Technical University) is a leading scientific school in the field of studies of selective inorganic sorbents for various purposes. Application procedures for synthesis of inorganic sorbents, allowing control of their specificity and selectivity, are under development in the other [branch] of the Voznesenskii’s school, at the South Ural University (Chelyabinsk), at the chair headed by Yu.I. Sukharev. One of the last students who sustained his degree under the Voznesenskii’s guidance, V.M. Nikolaev, the author of well-known studies in chemistry of transuranium elements, at present heads the Chair of Ecology and Life Safety, Ul’yanovsk Technical University. Along with solving a wide spectrum of applied environmental problems, this team develops a concept of environmental orientation of education at technical institutions. The laboratory headed by L.M. Sharygin (VozneRADIOCHEMISTRY
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senskii’s second-generation disciple, as Sukharev), known as Termoksid Research and Production Firm, Private Company (Zarechnyi, Sverdlovsk oblast), develops, studies, and produces a wide assortment of heat- and radiation-resistant inorganic sorbents. For mastering of commercial production of inorganic sorbents and their putting into operation at Nuclear Power Plant 5, staff members of the Sharygin’s laboratory (including graduates of the Radiochemistry Chair V.F. Gonchar and S.Ya. Tret’yakov) were awarded with the USSR State Prize. In Yekaterinburg itself, certain scientific teams are headed by representatives of the second generation of the Voznesenskii’s school: V.G. Berezyuk, E.V. Migalatii, E.V. Polyakov, and V.P. Remez. At present, the Radiochemistry Chair of UGTU3 UPI, remaining the only team at Ural higher schools where training is performed on handling radioactive
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substances in the open form, teaches radiochemistry, radioecology, and general ecology for all specialties of the Physicotechnical Faculty; in accordance with the decision of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Government, it organizes the intercollegiate training and research laboratory of radioecology. At the Radiochemistry Chair, studies are continued on the radiochemistry of sorption systems, radioanalytical chemistry, and radioecology of biogeocenoses contaminated with natural and artificial radionuclides. Recently the chair joined in the international program related to medicobiological problems of production and use of radionuclides. The tradition is alive while there are people who remember its sources and honor the [genealogical tree] of the scientific problem remaining extremely urgent: control of the behavior of individual radioactive microcomponents in complex heterogeneous natural and industrial systems.
