Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a process for removing the toxic element of americium from nuclear waste pools – a problem that has puzzled the scientific community for decades.
The University of North Carolina's news service announced the development, which was first made public through the peer-reviewed journal Science.
“In order to solve the nuclear waste problem, you have to solve the americium problem,” said Tom Meyer, the Arey distinguished professor of chemistry at the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.
Americium is a largely forgotten element as far as its presence in the public's consciousness. It “doesn't have the same name recognition as plutonium and uranium,” the news service conceded. But several methods for removing it proved to not live up to early hopes for success.
The new technology, developed by lead researchers Meyer and Chris Dares is similar to one Meyer used at the UNC Energy Frontier Research Center of Solar Fuels which involves “tear(ing) electrons from water molecules,” the university said.
“In the americium project, Meyer and Dares adapted the technology to tear electrons from americium, which requires twice as much energy input as splitting water. By removing those three electrons, americium behaves like plutonium and uranium, which is then easy to remove with existing technology,” UNC said.
When nuclear fuel is reprocessed, it is dissolved in acid. With the plutonium and uranium separated “americium will either be separated with plutonium and uranium or removed in a second step,” the bulletin explained.
Most of the work on the new process was developed in Idaho with help from the Idaho National Laboratory. Currently, the INL and UNC-Chapel Hill are discussing how to scale up the technology, presumably for commercial use.
“With a scaled up solution, not only will we no longer have to think about the dangers of storing radioactive waste long-term, but we will have a viable solution to close the nuclear fuel cycle and contribute to solving the world's energy needs. That's exciting,” said Dares.