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Chemists have found a new use for the waste product of nuclear power - transforming an unused stockpile into a versatile compound which could be used to create valuable commodity chemicals as well as new energy sources.
Depleted uranium (DU) is a radioactive by-product from the process used to create nuclear energy. Many fear the health risks from DU, as it is either stored in expensive facilities or used to manufacture controversial armour-piercing missiles.
But, in a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Professor Geoff Cloke, Professor Richard Layfield and Dr Nikolaos Tsoureas, all at the University of Sussex, have revealed that DU could, in fact, be more useful than we might think.
By using a catalyst which contains depleted uranium, the researchers have managed to convert ethylene (an alkene used to make plastic) into ethane (an alkane used to produce a number of other compounds including ethanol).
Their work is a breakthrough that could help reduce the heavy burden of large-scale storage of DU, and lead to the transformation of more complicated alkenes.
Prof Layfield said: "The ability to convert alkenes into alkanes is an important chemical reaction that means we may be able to take simple molecules and upgrade them into valuable commodity chemicals, like hydrogenated oils and petrochemicals which can be used as an energy source.
"The fact that we can use depleted uranium to do this provides proof that we don't need to be afraid of it as it might actually be very useful for us."
Journal Reference:
Nikolaos Tsoureas, Laurent Maron, Alexander F. R. Kilpatrick, Richard A. Layfield, F. Geoffrey N. Cloke. Ethene Activation and Catalytic Hydrogenation by a Low-Valent Uranium Pentalene Complex. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2019; 142 (1): 89 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b11929
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Monday January 13 2020, @03:37PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-238 [wikipedia.org]
U-238 is *fertile*, not fissile - meaning it can be "bred" into fissile material, but cannot itself sustain a fission chain reaction, so you need a breeder reactor to sustain the reaction.
>Also, the word you are looking for is "chain reaction" not "radioactive".
Nope, I chose my words carefully, and that's an almost completely different concept. Radioactivity discusses how much and what kinds of radiation is leaving something - possibly due to fission, but usually not. The existence of a chain reaction tells you that the radiation is of a quantity and kind sufficient to sustain fission. U-238's is categorically not, as it's decay into Th-234 doesn't eject any free neutrons with which to breed Pu-239, much less trigger a chain reaction - so not even an infinite volume of U-238 could sustain a chain reaction
> You are forgetting Avogadro's number, perhaps? There are many atoms in just a kilogram.
There are. But our environment is rich in ambient radiation anyway - the question is whether the radiation coming off a chunk of U-238 is sufficient to notably increase your radiation exposure. And while I'm not confident enough in my reasoning to want to sit in a uranium vault without first actually measuring that, I'm pretty sure it would be safe.
Consider - U-238's entire decay chain to stable Pb-206 is all alpha and beta decay - neither of which can cause chain reactions, and both of which can be reliably stopped by a thin sheet of foil. Meaning that it shouldn't make any difference to your radiation exposure whether you're standing next to a thin sheet of U-238 foil, or a meter-thick slab of it - the only radiation that reaches you will be that which is actually originating in the outmost foil-thin layer. (Though the slab would be at least slightly warmer thanks to all the alpha and beta radiation energy being converted to heat within it)
As for "hot" and "cold" radioactive material - I think you're basically correct in concept, though I think your terminology is off. I could easily see such terms being common "slang" in the industry, but a quick search turns up no reference to them, the "official" terms appear to me "high level", "low-level", etc.