What a waste...chemist convicted of murder

"Chemist found guilty of murder"

by

Laura Howes

July 17th, 2013

Chemistry World

A chemist in the US has been found guilty of killing her husband with thallium obtained from the Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) lab where she worked. Tianle Li, 43, was also found guilty of hindering her prosecution after originally claiming that she did not have access to thallium at BMS.

During the trial, testimony revealed that Li had obtained four bottles of a thallium salt from BMS in November 2010, before returning three later that year. In the US the general public cannot purchase thallium but it can be useful in the chemistry lab, for example its salts can help promote cross-coupling reactions. However, thallium is also known as a perfect poison – odourless, colourless and tasteless, and less than a gram can be deadly.

On the 14 January 2011, Li’s husband Xiaoye Wang checked himself into University Medical Centre in Princeton with flu-like symptoms. It was not until several days later that thallium poisoning was suspected and a urine sample sent for testing. To do that the sample had to be transferred to a lab in another state.

The actual test for thallium is quite simple, says Barry Samson, director of the trace element laboratory at Charing Cross Hospital in London, UK, explaining that he uses inductively-coupled mass spectrometry on blood or urine samples. However, he adds, not all labs have the equipment and although, in this case, thallium poisoning was suspected, checks for the metal will not always be carried out in scans for heavy metals if there is no suspicion that the patient has come into contact with the element.

Wang died in hospital on 26 January 2011, just one day after doctors received the results of his tests. Curtis Rykal, a lab technologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota who tested Wang’s urine for thallium, told the court that the results ‘were higher than our highest reportable amount. It was off the charts, I have never seen results that high.’

Thallium is so poisonous because the body confuses it with potassium and so interferes with numerous processes, causing nerve damage. Thallium poisoning can be treated with Prussian blue, however in Wang’s case staff at the hospital were not able to get any to the hospital before he died.

Tianle Li will be sentenced later this year and is facing life in prison for the crime. BMS were approached by Chemistry World for comment but they declined due to pending civil litigation related to the case.

Thallium [Wikipedia]

Thorium for reactors?

Shippingport nuclear power plant

The first large-scale nuclear powerplant in the world began operating in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1957--exactly 15 years after Enrico Fermi demonstrated the first sustained nuclear reaction. The Duquesne Light Company of Pittsburgh built and operated the Shippingport plant on a site it owned on the Ohio River. The company also contributed to the cost of developing the government-owned reactor. Three years later, the Shippingport plant began supplying electricity to the Pittsburgh area. The Shippingport nuclear powerplant was retired in 1982. Congress assigned the decontamination and decommissioning of this commercial reactor to DOE. This was the first complete decontamination and decommissioning of a reactor in the United States. The reactor vessel was shipped to a low-level waste disposal facility at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. The reactor site was cleaned and released for unrestricted use in November 1987. Government officials proclaimed the seven-acre site is suitable for picnicking or for a children's playground.

Fission is fission whether one uses uranium or thorium. Okay, it reduces the production of plutonium for weapons but still produces waste. It is a short term solution for a long term problem. Hold back on fission reactors and invest in fusion research.

"Some Nuclear Energy Backers Say Uranium Alternative Could be a Magic Bullet"

by

Kent Garber

October 14th, 2008

U.S. News & World Report

In the midst of renewed global interest in nuclear energy, a long-overlooked nuclear fuel, thorium, is being re-examined as a potential solution to some of the industry's most daunting problems, including disposal of waste.

Widely available in the sandy beaches of India, Australia, and the United States, among other places, thorium is a naturally occurring, slightly radioactive element that is being heralded by advocates as a safer alternative to uranium that could help limit the production of nuclear waste and prevent nuclear technology from being used for weapons rather than energy.

Though many nuclear scientists have known about thorium's potential for decades—it was briefly used in the 1970s at the first U.S. commercial reactor in Shippingport, Pa.—it never caught on commercially. Today, however, with nearly three dozen nuclear reactors under construction worldwide and plans for at least two dozen more, world leaders are facing mounting pressure to make sure that the nuclear industry's expansion takes place as safely and cleanly as possible.

Could thorium be the solution? Some politicians and businesses hope so. Earlier this month, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch introduced a bill that would set aside $250 million for research and development of thorium fuels.

Abroad, interest in thorium is even greater. The Indian government publicly has said that it wants to promote new nuclear plants running on thorium to help meet its soaring energy needs. Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and many others also have expressed interest.

Proponents say thorium has multiple advantages over uranium fuel. Because it is consumed more slowly in nuclear reactions than uranium, it has the potential to cut the volume of nuclear waste produced in half. Unlike a uranium reaction, a thorium fuel reaction doesn't produce weapons-usable plutonium, which would allay concerns about developing countries pursuing nuclear weapons under the pretext of nuclear energy. And proponents also say that thorium fuel could be used in new and existing reactors without companies having to make major changes to their reactor designs or fork out money for retrofits.

The dilemma of nuclear waste disposal, a longtime political lightning rod, is part of the reason no new nuclear plant has been approved for construction in the United States in some 30 years. The federal government's decades-old plan to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., remains stuck in limbo, and many observers speculate that the repository will never get built. Thorium would not eliminate the problem but, at least in theory, could reduce the amount of waste that would need disposal.

At the moment, thorium isn't quite ready for commercial use. The research is not yet complete, and approval of thorium fuel by the U.S. government still remains at least several years off. But some surprising international partnerships already are yielding promising developments.

One leading company, Virginia-based Thorium Power, has been working with researchers in Russia since the early 1990s to commercialize thorium (with the blessing of the U.S. government, of course). For the past five years, Thorium Power has been testing its fuel design in a research reactor at Moscow's Kurchatov Institute. Having completed that phase, the company will spend the next six months examining the results, says Thorium Power's CEO, Seth Grae. Over the next few years, it plans to test the fuel in a commercial reactor and, finally, seek approval from the Russian government to market the technology. "A few years ago I would have ticked off several risk factors that are now behind us," Grae said. "This is now at a very advanced stage."

According to the World Nuclear Association, however, there are some technical and financial hurdles that need to be resolved. There is a small concern, for instance, that the type of uranium that is formed in the reaction, if it were to be isolated, could still be used to make weapons.

From IOP...physicsworld...

"Fusion challenges and solutions"