Trasmutazione con laser

From: Flavio <flaviozanovello_at_hotmail.com>
Date: 26 Aug 2003 06:31:45 -0700

Vi riporto questa notizia che mi sembra interessante.

"A consortium of UK and German researchers has successfully
transformed the radioactive isotope Iodine-129, a major waste product
from nuclear power generation, into the safer isotope Iodine-128,
using laboratory lasers.

The scientists from the University of Strathclyde, Imperial College
London, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, ITU Karlsruhe and the
University of Jena are the first to ever successfully transmute an
isotope, and have published their findings in the Journal of Physics.

Iodine-129 has a half-life (the amount of time it takes for half the
atoms in a given sample to decay) of 15.7 million years, so currently
it is encased in glass and buried deep underground. Iodine-128,
however, has a half-life of just 25 minutes and can be safely handled
and disposed of in under an hour.

Professor Ken Ledingham, from the University of Strathclyde, said:
'The discovery [...] shows for the first time that we can transmute
radioactive isotopes using lasers. Now we need to scale up our methods
so that we can deal with the sort of volumes likely to be produced by
the nuclear power industry in the future. Using lasers is a relatively
cheap and very efficient way of disposing of nuclear waste.'

The consortium also believes that their method will facilitate
production of the isotopes needed for PET scanners, used in hospitals
and research. Currently these isotopes are created in huge machines
called cyclotrons, but the team believe that manufacture using lasers
will be a practical reality within five years."

Non ho proprio capito (scusate la mia ingnoranza), su quale principio
si basa questa trasmutazione. Potrei capire fosse un laser che eccita
transizioni nucleari (che non penso esista) ma un normale laser boh.
Qualcuno sa qualcosa o perlomeno ha idee?

Flavio
Received on Tue Aug 26 2003 - 15:31:45 CEST