History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back Radiochemical Laboratory: History, Actual Problems and Perspective View Veleshko I.E. Yakovlev N.G. Veleshko A.N. Kalinichenko B.S. Sinyutina Z.M. Robeletz G.N. Rozanov K.V. Rumyantseva E.V. In this review the main aspects of creating the first radiochemical laboratory in Soviet atomic project have been concerned. At the initial step the first quantities of Pu, Am, Cm, Bk and Cf have been obtained. The physicochemical properties of those elements were investigated. It has been allowed the soviet researchers to collect 239Pu the main component of the nuclear weapon. The one method for accumulation of transplutonium radionuclides (TPR) is the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) reprocessing. In the 60–70th the researches interests change to investigation of chemical properties of pair Am and Cm. Their separation, fractionation and research of their chemical properties became the main theme of radiochemical laboratory work as the next step. The reprocessing of TPR targets is very difficult procedure. In 1963 after some cycles of plutonium target irradiation in RFT nuclear reactor the first quantities of 252Cf have been obtained for laboratory investigations. This line in laboratory work became main direction through many years. At the first period major method in TPR targets reprocessing was precipitation with lanthanum fluoride and barium sulfate. Then laboratory researchers were trying to find new and efficient technique consist of organic liquid extraction and ion exchange sorbtion. At the period of Chernobyl disaster new methods of TPR analysis in different environmental sites have been developed by laboratory stuff. These methods had to be accurate, selective and very short time for carrying out. Also principal features of the methods were duration of sampling and analysis, chemical output measuring by radionuclide mark, degree of concentration, chemical purity and detection limits. In 1987–1990 researchers of radiochemical laboratory tested the developing methods in special laboratory at Chernobyl power plant. Beside the environment analysis under reactor drill cores and alloy samples have been studied. During last years direct investigations for searching new adsorption materials and effective analytic methods in environmental research have been carried out. High efficient method of determination low 137Cs concentrations applied Mycoton-Cs as adsorbent in seawater and apparatus for it have been proposed. This method and mobile analytic plant have been tested in expeditions to Barens and Kara seas at 2002–2007. Today united collective of radiochemical laboratory can solve actual problems of radiochemistry. Scientific works and publications are well known and publishing in Russian and some abroad journals. Keywords: actinides; radiochemistry; atomic project; radioecology. Contacts: E&#8209;mail: veleshko@irtm.kiae.ru Pp. 38-67.