Department of Nuclear Chemistry
The Department of Nuclear Chemistry (DNC) at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) is the centre of education in nuclear chemistry and one of the leading institutions in the research in all the sub-disciplines of this field in the Czech Republic. Since its foundation, the department has been dedicated to the education of the next generation of nuclear chemists. Currently, its core activity is to provide education in all three levels of university studies: bachelor and master continuation programmes in Nuclear Chemistry, Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities and in the doctoral programmes Nuclear Chemistry and Safety and Security of Nuclear Facilities and Forensic Analysis of Nuclear Materials. Students in these study programmes usually participate in current research projects as part of their theses.
Applied and basic research at DNC can be divided into four basic areas of nuclear and radiation chemistry:
Separation and Radioanalysis
Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry
Migration of Radionuclides and Toxic Substances in the Environment
Radiation Chemistry
All research areas are supported by a number of national and international projects. An important part of the research activity is also sharing results with other experts in the form of publications in impacted journals or participation at international conferences, project meetings or workshops.
DNC operates a complex of fully refurbished chemistry and radiochemistry laboratories, licensed for work with open sources of ionizing radiation and equipped with a full scale of radiometric instrumentation including alpha and high resolution gamma spectrometer, liquid scintilation spectrometer or radio-thin-layer chromatography imaging scanner. All this radiometric equipment is backed by useful analytical instruments ranging from high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, ion chromatography, thermogravimetric analyser, atomic absorption spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction to UV-VIS spectrophotometers. In addition, special instruments like laser spectrometer for the TRLFS studies of actinides and lanthanides complexation/speciation, cabin roentgen irradiation system for irradiation studies or modular decontamination system for education and research activities in the field of decontamination.
The nuclear chemists from the CTU have been active also in organising various seminars and conferences. One of the most important of these events is the series of the international Radiochemical Conferences held every four years in the spa of Mariánské Lázně.