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Materials Science

Displaced by radiation

The mineral zircon suffers more structural damage from the α-decay of plutonium present in its crystal than was thought. That could have a knock-on effect on strategies for managing nuclear waste.

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Figure 1: Defect trail.

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Ewing, R. Displaced by radiation. Nature 445, 161–162 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/445161a

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