Green Separation Techniques for Nuclear Waste Management

Featuring Chien M. Wai, Ph.D.

Department of Chemistry

University of Idaho



Free and open to the public



Abstract:

Supercritical fluid carbon dioxide and ionic liquids are attractive green solvents for chemical reactions and separations.  Recent developments in using these green solvents for managing nuclear wastes are summarized.  A current industrial project using supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent for recovering enriched uranium from wastes generated by the light-water reactor fuel fabrication process is described.  Potentials of utilizing supercritical CO2 technology for reprocessing spent nuclear fuels are also discussed.



About the Speaker:

Chien M. Wai received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of California, Irvine in 1967, under the guidance of Professor F. Sherwood Rowland.  After two years of postdoctoral study at UCLA, he joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Idaho in 1969.  He has been teaching and doing research at the University of Idaho for four decades.  His currently research activities include extraction and separation of lanthanides and actinides using ionic liquids and supercritical fluids as solvents and synthesis of nanomaterials in supercritical fluids.