Nuclear waste articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Covalent organic frameworks are used in capture of radioactive ions but achieving high separation factors remains challenging. Here, the authors design an ionic COF its neutral non-ionic to better understand the role of different N sites on the selective capture of Th(IV) and report remarkable separation factors ranging from 102 to 105.

    • Xiaojuan Liu
    • , Feng Gao
    •  & Guoan Ye
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Desorption of ions from sorbents generally involves high acid or base concentrations and long desorption times, especially for multivalent ions. Here the authors report a rapid and efficient desorption of Co2+, Mn2+, and Sr2+ adsorbed on magnetite-graphene oxide that occurs by adding low amounts of Al3+, which is shown to interact with graphene more strongly than divalent ions.

    • Xinming Xia
    • , Feng Zhou
    •  & Haiping Fang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study proposes a method to differentiate between local plutonium-based contamination in soils versus trace plutonium stemming from global dispersion in the past, such as fallout from detonation and atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.

    • Chris Tighe
    • , Maxi Castrillejo
    •  & Malcolm J. Joyce
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The larger particulates from reactor Unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant have received sparse attention compared to the Unit 2 particulate. Here the authors perform the higher-resolution and 3-dimentional analysis of several high-density micron-scale fragments, from within a larger Unit 1-derived representative ejecta particle.

    • Peter G. Martin
    • , Marion Louvel
    •  & Thomas B. Scott
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Uranium extraction is important for both uranium recovery and nuclear waste management. Here, inspired by the high sensitivity of proteins towards specific metal ions, Ma and colleagues demonstrate that introducing secondary coordination spheres into amidoxime-functionalized porous polymers can enhance their uranyl chelating abilities.

    • Qi Sun
    • , Briana Aguila
    •  & Shengqian Ma
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Capturing radioactive organic iodides from nuclear waste is important for safe nuclear energy usage, but remains a significant challenge. Here, Li and co-workers fabricate a stable metal–organic framework functionalized with tertiary amine groups that exhibits high capacities for radioactive organic iodides uptake.

    • Baiyan Li
    • , Xinglong Dong
    •  & Jing Li
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystalline uraninite is believed to be the dominant form in uranium deposits. Here, the authors find that non-crystalline U(IV) generated through biologically mediated U(VI) reduction is the predominant U(IV)species in ore deposits, implying that biogenic processes are more important than previously thought.

    • Amrita Bhattacharyya
    • , Kate M. Campbell
    •  & Thomas Borch