Experimental Work on Ruthenium Releases

Aim: To quantify the amount of ruthenium released from a non-radioactive solid.

Overview of Task: The quantity of ruthenium that is released to the gas phase from a solid that is heated in the region 200-650 °C is to be measured. Four different solids will be assessed. Three of the solids will consist of a large number of element oxides and element nitrates from across the periodic table. Ruthenium is present in the solid at around 1% by elemental mass, but the precise speciation is not known. However, the ruthenium is likely to be in the form of an oxide and/or a nitrate. The quantity of solid available for experiments is not a limiting factor. The presence of nitrates within the solid will mean that upon heating nitrogen oxides (NOx) will be generated, yielding the corresponding element oxide. The 4th solid to be experimented on is RuO2 and will be used as a comparison.

This task will be broken down into 4 components for which quotes are requested. The supplier is encouraged to add technical input. Any additional scope is to be quoted for against task 3.

The technical scope involves the following tasks:

1. TASK 1 - Scoping Experiments
2. TASK 2 - Main Experimental Work
3. TASK 3 - Opportunity for supplier to suggest technical scope
4. TASK 4 - Secondment of NNL technical staff to assist in part of/all of the experimental program