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posted by janrinok on Monday January 13 2020, @02:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the green-or-not-green dept.

Unused stockpiles of nuclear waste could be more useful than we might think: Chemists have found a new use for the waste product of nuclear power:

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


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday January 13 2020, @04:13PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Monday January 13 2020, @04:13PM (#942771)

    And spent fuel rods have more U-235 than depleted uranium. Our current PWR reactor designs don't burn the fuel terribly efficiently.

    The problem is the spent rods also have a lot of other isotopes in them which make them a pain to deal with, so they end up sitting in pools near reactors.

    If we made use of breeder reactors, we could make use of these spent fuel rods and put them to work. Currently it is cheaper and more politically acceptable to just let them sit.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh