Inside Cover: Neptunium Diverges Sharply from Uranium and Plutonium in Crystalline Borate Matrixes: Insights into the Complex Behavior of the Early Actinides Relevant to Nuclear Waste Storage (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 7/2010)

A large family of crystalline uranium, neptunium, and plutonium borates has been prepared to explore how the chemical behavior of these neighboring elements might differ. In their Communication on page 1263 ff., T. E. Albrecht-Schmitt et al. describe highly unusual behavior for neptunium, which forms several layered neptunyl borates with nanoscale features that simultaneously contain NpIV, NPV, and NpVI. The properties of these neptunium compounds contrast sharply with those of uranium and plutonium, which are both present solely as UVI or PuVI.