Depleted uranium catalyst could cut nuclear waste

Depleted uranium (DU) is one of the primary by-products of generating nuclear energy, and as one of the oldest nuclear powers, the UK has found itself with a significant nuclear waste problem. Finding non-military uses for depleted uranium has proved difficult, with costs for the resulting storage of the nuclear waste spiralling as its volume grows.

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Researchers from Sussex University, alongside colleagues from Université de Toulouse and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, have come up with a solution that could help address the problems associated with DU. They found that an organometallic molecule based on depleted uranium could catalyse the addition of a molecule of hydrogen to the carbon-carbon double bond in ethylene (an alkene) to create ethane (an alkane), which in turn can be used to create a number of useful compounds including ethanol. The work is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.