Scumbria, on the one hand, it was high school chemistry, but on the other hand, it was high school chemistry at Los Alamos. You'd figure that they'd be careful about saying stuff like that there, if nowhere else.
A quick web search didn't turn up a suitable overview, so I resorted to my, er, old Org text.
Isotope effects
Different isotopes of the same element have, by definition, the same electronic configuration, and hence similar chemical properties. . . .
Yet different isotopes have, also by definition, different masses, and because of this their chemical properties are not identical; the same reactions can occur but at somewhat different rates. A difference in rate (or position of equilibrium) due to a difference in the isotope present in the reaction system is called an isotope effect
That from Morrison and Boyd, Organic Chemistry, let's just say a vintage edition and leave it at that. That particular discussion was in the context of reaction kinetics, but thermal effects are, um, somewhat related in physical mechanisms.
The thing I wonder about is producing pure Si28 economically. Si28 is 92% natural abundance, the rest is mostly Si29. An easier separation than U238/U235, but still a bit tricky. Isonics seems to be counting on ex-Soviet facilities, which might be cheap, but reliability questions come to mind.
Cheers, Dan. |
