Timeline of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of caesium-137 by the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics journal—an estimate about 42 percent of that released into the atmosphere in the Chernobyl explosion in 1986. Caesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years. TEPCO reports the completion of a cover for the reactor unit 1, which is 54 metres high, 47 metres wide and 42 metres deep. The cover has a built-in ventilation system that is supposed to filter radioactive material. Boric acid is injected into reactor number 2 after the discovery of xenon in its containment vessel. The presence of xenon may be an indication that a self-sustained fission reaction
Isotope separation first isotope separator was developed at the Copenhagen Cyclotron by Bohr and coworkers using the principle of electromagnetic separation. Today, there are many laboratories around the world that supply beams of radioactive ions for use. Arguably the principal Isotope Separator On Line (ISOL) is ISOLDE at CERN, which is a joint European facility spread across the Franco-Swiss border near the city of Geneva. This laboratory uses mainly proton spallation of uranium carbide targets to produce a wide range of radioactive fission fragments that are not found naturally on earth. During spallation (bombardment with high energy protons), a uranium carbide target