NUCLEAR POWER Keeping the Lights on with Nuclear Waste: Radiochemistry Transforms Nuclear Waste into Strategic Materials
How UNLV radiochemistry is pioneering the future of energy in the Southwest by salvaging strategic materials from nuclear dumps –and making it safe.
The world has been enriching uranium for many decades, primarily beginning in the Cold War era. As a result, there are stockpiles of depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6), or nuclear waste.
Long feared as a (bio)hazardous hot potato, the waste — if treated — could be part of the solution to future-proofing the Southwest’s power grid.
“It’s particularly nasty stuff that sits in containers above ground. And if you come into contact with it, you could die,” said David Hatchett, Vice President of Research and professor of radiochemistry at UNLV. “That’s where we come in as a university: we can work with that material. And we were asked if we could make it safe.”
Over the past 25 years, Hatchett’s lab on UNLV’s campus has grown to become a national leader in the complex field of electrochemistry, including projects focused on the successful recovery and recycling of strategic materials, including rare earth metals and lithium. Seeing this, the U.S. Department of Energy approached Hatchett and UNLV about the possibility of applying its patented techniques to make UF6 safe. Not only did his team accomplish that feat, it went a step further.
“We don’t just make it safe, we actually recover the material for future use,” said Hatchett. “Rather than mining our way into more materials and damaging the environment, we can reuse what we already have sitting there in high abundance.”
And there is plenty of nuclear waste to go around. Hatchett says there are 1.2 million metric tons globally, with 700,000 metric tons in the U.S. alone (that’s about 1.5 billion pounds). Converting this waste into useful material at an industrial scale stands to revolutionize the future sustainability of the region.
“In a place like Las Vegas, for example, we can have solar energy while the sun’s on,” he said. “But what do we do at night? If water is an issue for hydroelectric power at the Hoover Dam, how are we going to produce all of the energy we need? Nuclear can provide stable, high-density power for things like data centers, AI, and other industries needing reliable energy.”
Next Steps of Nuclear
Interest in nuclear power is undergoing a bit of a renaissance. The industry is seeing some forward momentum with the successful deployment of Vogtle Units 3 & 4 in Georgia, and more utility operators are investigating involvement.
