Australian scientists find new way to store nuclear waste
19/9/2008 16:59
Australian scientists have found a new and cheaper way to filter and
safely store nuclear waste.
Zhu Huaiyong, Associate Professor of School of
Physical and Chemical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), told
Xinhua on the telephone today that the research team led by him has discovered
how to create nanofibres, which are millionths of a millimetre in size and can
permanently lock away radioactive ions by displacing the existing sodium ions in
the fibre.
"We have created ceramic nanofibres which attract and trap
radioactive cations (positively charged ions), possibly forever," he
said.
According to Zhu, the ceramic material can last a very long time, much
longer than the radioactivity of a radioactive ion. However, other material such
as plastic or steel, could not last longer than the radioactivity.
The
discovery was particularly important as the world increased its reliance on
nuclear energy, Zhu said.
The professor, who finished his higher education in
China, said water is used to cool nuclear reactors and during the mining and
purification of nuclear material, so waste water is a big problem. If the waste
was stored conventionally in lakes or steel containers, there was a danger it
could leak and pollute the land around it.
The ceramic nanofibres were made
from titanium dioxide, a mineral found abundantly in Australia and used to color
white paint. The ceramic nanofibres they have found was also more chemically
stable than metal, could last much longer and was much cheaper to make than
steel.
"The fibres are in very thin layers, less than one nanometre in width,
and the radioactive ions are attracted into the space between the layers," he
said.
Xinhua
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