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Our research applications

Our research applications

Our stable isotopes are used for several research applications, including food absorption studies, material research and nuclear physics.

Food uptake studies image Food uptake studies image

Food uptake studies

A significant amount of research is done into the diet of children living in poor and underdeveloped areas. These children's diet often lacks the right amounts of essential elements such as zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium. Studies are performed to verify if and how these essential elements are absorbed by the body and where they can be found inside the body. These food uptake studies regularly use our zinc isotopes. 

Material research

Materials used in nuclear environments are subjected to harsh conditions with intense neutron fluxes. These materials are often subjected to neutron fluxes, which decrease their lifetime. By changing the isotopic composition of the materials, the cross section for neutron capture can be reduced significantly. This leads to lower activation, a reduction in radioactive waste and increased lifetime of the materials. We can produce low-activating tungsten, which is ideally suited to environments with high neutron fluxes, such as fission and fusion reactors. We have also developed low-activating titanium, depleted in titanium46, which strongly reduces the formation of radioactive scandium46.

Nuclear physics

Stable isotopes are used extensively in nuclear physics research, one example being for the creation of super-heavy elements. Our enriched zinc70 and titanium50 have been, and still are, extensively used for this research.

Another example is the use of enriched stable isotopes for neutrino research. Enriched isotopes that we produce, such as selenium82, germanium76, tellurium130 and xenon136, are often incorporated into detectors which are used for investigating the characteristics of neutrinos. 

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