Graphene can make the nuclear industry cleaner and cost effective, according to researchers from the University of Manchester.

They've recently published their findings in, suggesting that graphene-based membranes can work as aand might be extremely effective at making nuclear power cheaper and cleaner.

When it comes to nuclear energy, it's very costly to produce heavy water but researchers suggest that graphene will be a gamer changer in this space because it has the properties that enable it to effectively separate the sub-atomic particles, helping to make the heavy water production much cheaper.

They also say that going with graphene will help with the reduction of CO2 emissions associated with the production of heavy water. They estimate that it would be reduced by at least one million tonnes every year.

It's suggested that graphene could make the process at least 100x cheaper than current methods (ex: vapour deposition).

The group of researchers who conducted the study have now fully developed a scalable prototype of membranes and have successfully demonstrated the isotope separation. They describe their recent study results as marking a crucial milestone on the journey to taking graphene to industrial application.

Graphene has quickly been making its way into a number of different market spaces and the researchers suggest that the nuclear industry is just one more space that is going to be dramatically transformed with further implementation of this technology.

Pics:

University of Manchester

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Sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/graphene-could-be-used-to-clean-up-nuclear-waste-say-scientists-a6792281.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-graphene-membranes-nuclear-industry-greener.html

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/graphene-could-revolutionise-nuclear-power-13006185

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/graphene-sieves-deuterium-from-hydrogen/9308.article

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a26426/nuclear-energy-problems/

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