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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: 4, Informative) by Immerman on Monday January 13 2020, @03:05AM (15 children)
In exactly what sense is depleted uranium meaningfully radioactive? It's produced by stripping out as much of the fissile U-235 as possible, meaning it's almost pure U-238.
And just to put that in proper context - even the more volatile U-235 has a half life of over 700 million years, while U-238 has a half-life of almost 4.5 *billion* years. And of course, the longer the half-life, the less radioactive something is - at those timescales radioactivity is pretty close to nonexistent. Dangerous radioactivity is associated with things whose half-lives are measured in minutes to decades, not ice-ages.
Uranium is dangerous - but that's because it's a toxic heavy metal, not because it's radioactive. U-235 will become radioactive if you put enough of it in one place to sustain a fission reaction, but U-238 won't even do that.
(Score: 2, Funny) by RandomFactor on Monday January 13 2020, @03:14AM
Also in common usage the depleted form can cause negative impacts and has been known to damage equipment and cause injury.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 3, Funny) by Mer on Monday January 13 2020, @08:42AM
Radium has a half life of 1600 years and it's deadly. That's lower than 700 million years but way above minutes as you put it. But radium has a nasty habit of going in your bones and staying there.
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday January 13 2020, @09:53AM (3 children)
Half-life is one thing, quantity is another. If you surround yourself with enough U-238, you will most likely *not* be happy.
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday January 13 2020, @01:30PM (2 children)
That's called a fallout shelter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @03:44PM
That's something else, isn't it?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/588430/Fallout_Shelter/ [steampowered.com]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday January 13 2020, @04:27PM
That's called a tomb.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @11:28AM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @11:34AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @02:55PM (1 child)
Yet you can hold a survey meter over a banana or purified potassium and hear it click away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @03:34PM
We are good at detecting radiation. In comparison, we are completely blind to chemical spills.
Furthermore, just because it clicks, doesn't mean it clicks because of the banana. We live in a soup of radiation. You'd be surprised how much radiation is passing through your body every day.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @12:13PM (1 child)
U238 is perfectly good fissile material, at least when it comes to energy production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-238#Nuclear_energy_applications [wikipedia.org]
Also, the word you are looking for is "chain reaction" not "radioactive".
You are wrong considering this non-existent. It's very existent. You are forgetting Avogadro's number, perhaps? There are many atoms in just a kilogram.
Also, the word you are looking for here is not "radioactive" but "cold" vs. "hot". Cold radioactive material would be like Uranium 238 or 235 or Potassium-40. A hot radioactive material would be something like Cesium-135.
(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.
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday January 13 2020, @01:49PM (1 child)
Yeah, there is climate change level of science in this summary. Process used to create nuclear energy? Far as I know all DU comes from enrichment centrifuges. Like those Iranian ones that got bricked by exploiting a siemens zeroday. Armour-piercing missiles? I never heard of a DU missile, maybe a rocket grenade? They use it primarily in bullets, and having DU doesn't make it AP, having a steel core makes it AP rounds. You can legally own DU bullets, but not AP.
(Score: 2) by dry on Monday January 13 2020, @09:01PM
There are armor piercing DU shells. Besides being dense, it is used as it is self sharpening and flammable. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium#Ammunition [wikipedia.org]
While legal under international law as its primary purpose is not to poison, it is poison enough as a heavy metal that there is a movement to illegalize them. A strict reading of the 2nd amendment would only cover military arms due to the militia clause though Congress is free to legalize other arms.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday January 13 2020, @06:39PM
Does depleted uranium pose a radiation hazard? [europa.eu]