This volume contains papers presented at the 8th International Conference on Solid State Physics (SSP 2004), Workshop "Mossbauer Spectroscopy of Locally Heterogeneous Systems," held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 23 26 August 2004. It should be of interest to researchers and PhD students working or interested in recent results in the locally inhomogeneous system investigations by Mossbauer Spectroscopy and the new concepts of data evaluation of complex Mossbauer spectra.

At the 2005 Almaty workshop, specialists from the IAEA, Brazil, France, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, USA and Uzbekistan discussed safety-related issues of storing spent nuclear fuel. Fifteen papers were presented that dealt with aluminium-clad fuel discharged from research reactors worldwide, five papers were concerned with stainless steel-clad fuel from fast reactors, and two were devoted to Zircaloy-clad fuel from commercial light-water reactors.Although most attention was focused on fuel behaviour in storage pools, many countries - owing to lack of space - are beginning to dry store' spent fuel in an inert atmosphere in shielded casks. Both topics were covered thoroughly at the workshop. Water quality and dryness of the spent fuel, respectively, are critical factors in avoiding material degradation for the two storage modes...

This volume contains papers presented at the 8th International Conference on Solid State Physics (SSP 2004), Workshop "M ssbauer Spectroscopy of Locally Heterogeneous Systems," held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 23 26 August 2004. It should be of interest to researchers and PhD students working or interested in recent results in the locally inhomogeneous system investigations by M ssbauer Spectroscopy and the new concepts of data evaluation of complex M ssbauer spectra.

This book contains papers from a NATO-sponsored workshop in Almaty in September 2005, which discussed safety-related issues of storing spent nuclear fuel. Fifteen papers cover aluminum-clad fuel discharged from research reactors worldwide, while five papers examine stainless steel-clad fuel from fast reactors, and two Zircaloy-clad fuel from commercial light-water reactors.