The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #136314   Message #3128552
Posted By: GUEST
04-Apr-11 - 06:09 PM
Thread Name: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
THe way I read it the filter (oh maybe just one in all the world) does exist and the nanofibers exist..certainly not in quantity I am pretty sure. But here is a real live test they can do on a few prototypes..measure flow of a small area against how much is trapped.

And everyone in the world had best put their heads together on this..some ideas will be foolish and some will be flops and perhaps one will work. Or is better to be cynical if not nasty to people trying to help?

And something is going to filter this stuff sooner or later..baleen whales? Shellfish? Don't know. mg

from article about ceramic scientist

(Graphic: Zhu)
Water contaminated in nuclear power applications and other situations where radiactive elements used can be a significant problems, especially because of the volume compared to the actual amount of radiactive particles. What if there was a fairly simple way to run the water through a filter and remove those materials? Queensland University of Technology's Zhu Huai Yong says he has just such a filter. ......But Zhu's forté is ceramic filters. Zhu thinks there has to be a better way of storing contaminated fluids like water other than to put them in barrels or lakes. His idea involves ceramic fibers that will capture and "outlive" the decaying material.

"We have created ceramic nanofibres which attract and trap radioactive cations (positively charged ions), possibly forever," Zhu said. "The ceramic material can last a very long time, much longer than the radioactivity of a radioactive ion. 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. Once the ceramic material absorbs a certain amount, the layers collapse to lock the radioactive ions inside."
Zhu's fibers are made from titanium dioxide, and are about 40 microns in length. In an interview with Nanowerk, Zhu explained some of the details behind his filter:

"Natural inorganic cation exchange materials, such as clays and zeolites, have been extensively studied and used in the removal of radioactive ions from water via ion exchange and are subsequently disposed of in a safe way. However, synthetic inorganic cation exchange materials – such as synthetic micas, g-zirconium phosphate, niobate molecular sieves, and titanate – have been found to be far superior to natural materials in terms of selectivity for the removal of radioactive cations from water. Radioactive cations are preferentially exchanged with sodium ions or protons in the synthetic material. More importantly, a structural collapse