The use of nuclear power also generates nuclear waste. Since this waste is radioactive for thousands of years, it needs to be safely stored in a deep geological repository. An alternate solution to the open nuclear fuel cycle concept is to close the nuclear fuel cycle. Closing the nuclear fuel cycle not only reduces the amount of nuclear waste that needs to be safely disposed of, but also allows recycling the so-far not utilized fissile uranium 235 of the used nuclear fuel. We have utilized generation 2 (G2) polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers to separate uranium by precipitation from waste simulant solutions and exploit complementary techniques to gain insights into the separation process, such as laser fluorescence spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. Future studies will focus on radiation experiments at the UCI nuclear TRIGA reactor to gain insights into the effect of radiation towards the uranium extraction efficiency.

Uranium extraction by precipitation with PAMAM dendrimers

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.