Manchester Uni makes nuclear waste recycling leap

Steve Liddle, head of inorganic chemistry at the university, said as we increase our use of nuclear power, there is a need for improved extraction agents for nuclear waste separations and recycling technologies.

Now that we have proven that is possible to measure actinide covalency by pulsed EPR spectroscopy, I am very excited about the multiple avenues of research that we can now pursue

Lead researcher David Mills

“To achieve this, a much better understanding of the electronic structure of actinide complexes is needed, since this impacts on how these elements interact with extractants,” Liddle said.

Despite this, the majority of actinide-element bonds only display a small amount of covalency, making them difficult to measure, the researchers explained.

However, by using the high-tech pulsed EPR technology, they were able to calculate the electron density at elements bonded to these actinides, and therefore the extent of covalency in these systems.

“Now that we have proven that it is possible to measure actinide covalency by pulsed EPR spectroscopy, I am very excited about the multiple avenues of research that we can now pursue,” said David Mills, who led the research.

“We will be able to gain insights and challenge assumptions about f-elements – the area of the periodic table where our understanding currently lags behind that of other elements,” he added.

A full account of the research, which was supported by a number of universities and research institutions, has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

In November last year, researchers at the University of Bristol created a nuclear-powered battery that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity.