Tag Archives: Pennsylvania State University

A brief reference to the Fukushima nuclear accident then, nanotechnology and cleaning up radioactive waste

I came across an excellent article about the Fukushima nuclear accident (courtesy @edyong209) that recounts the first 24 hours of  the emergency. It’s fascinating to find out what they did right and why it all went so wrong in 24 Hours at Fukushima by Eliza Strickland for the November 2011 issue of IEEE Spectrum (published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [IEEE]). Excerpted from the article,

True, the antinuclear forces will find plenty in the Fukushima saga to bolster their arguments. The interlocked and cascading chain of mishaps seems to be a textbook validation of the “normal accidents” hypothesis developed by Charles Perrow after Three Mile Island. Perrow, a Yale University sociologist, identified the nuclear power plant as the canonical tightly coupled system, in which the occasional catastrophic failure is inevitable.

On the other hand, close study of the disaster’s first 24 hours, before the cascade of failures carried reactor 1 beyond any hope of salvation, reveals clear inflection points where minor differences would have prevented events from spiraling out of control. Some of these are astonishingly simple: If the emergency generators had been installed on upper floors rather than in basements, for example, the disaster would have stopped before it began. And if workers had been able to vent gases in reactor 1 sooner, the rest of the plant’s destruction might well have been averted.

Strickland provides some historical context (Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear accidents) in the addition to the 24 hour overview which provides details such as the fact that workers at the plant pulled the batteries out of their cars to generate some form of power after the plant generators failed.

Whether or not you believe we should be using nuclear, there can’t be any question that we have to deal with radioactive waste. From the Strickland article,

… So far, the cost of Fukushima is a dozen dead towns ringing the broken power station, more than 80 000 refugees, and a traumatized Japan.

On that note, the Nov. 2, 2011 news item (Nanotechnology makes storing radioactive waste safer) takes on some urgency. From the news item on Nanowerk,

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers have developed new technology capable of removing radioactive material from contaminated water and aiding clean-up efforts following nuclear disasters.

The technology, which was developed in collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and Pennsylvania State University in America, works by running the contaminated water through the fine nanotubes and fibres, which trap the radioactive Cesium (Cs+) ions through a structural change.

By adding silver oxide nanocrystals to the outer surface, the nanostructures are able to capture and immobilise radioactive iodine (I-) ions used in treatments for thyroid cancer, in probes and markers for medical diagnosis, as well as found in leaks of nuclear accidents.

“It is our view that just taking the radioactive material in the adsorbents isn’t good enough. We should make it safe before disposing it,” he [Professor Huai-Yong Zhu] said.

“The same goes for Australian sites where we mine nuclear products. We need a solution before we have a problem, rather than looking for fixes when it could be too late.”

“In France, 75 per cent of electricity is produced by nuclear power and in Belgium, which has a population of 10 million people there are six nuclear power stations,” he said.

“Even if we decide that nuclear energy is not the way we want to go, we will still need to clean-up what’s been produced so far and store it safely,” he said.

There’s no mention of commercializing this means of dealing with radioactive waste but I hope they manage it, or something better,  soon (from the news item),

“One gram of the nanofibres can effectively purify at least one tonne of polluted water,” Professor Zhu said.

University of Toronto, KAUST, Pennsylvania State University and quantum colloidal dots

I’ve written about colloidal quantum dot solar cells and University of Toronto professor Ted Sargent’s work before (June 28, 2011). He and his team have been busy again. From the Sept. 18, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

Researchers from the University of Toronto (U of T), King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) and Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) have created the most efficient colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cell ever.

The discovery is reported in the latest issue of Nature Materials.

The first time (June 28)  I wrote about the colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells, the team had made a breakthrough with the architecture of the solar cell by creating what they called a ‘graded recombination layer’ allowing infrared and visible light harvesters to be linked without compromising either layer. The next time I wrote about Sargent’s work  (July 11, 2011),  it concerned self-assembling quantum dots and DNA.

The very latest work is focussed on making the CQD solar cells more efficient by packing them closer together,

Until now, quantum dots have been capped with organic molecules that separate the nanoparticles by a nanometer. On the nanoscale, that is a long distance for electrons to travel.

To solve this problem, the researchers utilized inorganic ligands, sub-nanometer-sized atoms that bind to the surfaces of the quantum dots and take up less space. The combination of close packing and charge trap elimination enabled electrons to move rapidly and smoothly through the solar cells, thus providing record efficiency.

I gather this last breakthrough has made commercialization possible,

As a result of the potential of this research discovery, a technology licensing agreement has been signed by U of T and KAUST, brokered by MaRS Innovations (MI), which will enable the global commercialization of this new technology.

Here’s the competitive advantage that a CQD solar cell offers,

Quantum dots are nanoscale semiconductors that capture light and convert it into electrical energy. Because of their small scale, the dots can be sprayed onto flexible surfaces, including plastics. This enables the production of solar cells that are less expensive than the existing silicon-based version.

Congratulations!

There are more details about this latest breakthrough both in the Nanowerk news item and in this University of Toronto Sept.19, 2011 news release credited to Liam Mitchell. For anyone who’s curious about MaRS, it’s located in Toronto, Ontario and seems to be some sort of technology company incubator or here’s how they describe themselves (from their How did MaRS get started page?),

A charitable organization could be created to better connect the worlds of science, business and government. A public-private partnership with a mission to remove the barriers between silos. Nurture a culture of innovation. And help create global enterprises that would contribute to Canada’s economic and social development.

Fish camouflage, Australian webinar for nano business, medical nanobots in your bloodstream and Simon Fraser U has nano news

First off, the American Chemical Society (ACS) has declared ‘The Nano Song‘ a winner (in the People’s Choice and Critic’s Choice categories)  in their ACS Nanotation web community video contest ‘What is Nano?’.  If you haven’t seen the video yet, you can go here (scroll down).

Researchers at Sandia Labs are working to develop materials that change colour in the same that some fish can. Here’s how it works with the fish (from Nanowerk News here):

Certain fish species blend with their environment by changing color like chameleons. Their tiny motor proteins carry skin pigment crystals in their “tails” as they walk with their “feet” along the microtubule skeletons of cells to rearrange the animal’s color display.

The fish change colour as the environment around them changes. The researchers led by George Bachand are trying to enable synthetic or hybrid materials to do the same thing. Applications could be for military and/or fashion.

If you’re interested in the business end of nano, then there’s a webinar courtesy of the Australian Office of Nanotechnology coming up on April 29, 2009. NanoVentures Australia CEO, Peter Binks, will be talking about nanotechnology’s impact on global markets and industries. For more info. about the event, check here and to sign up for the event, go here.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University (US) are honing in on a way to get hordes of microrobots (or nanobots) that have been introduced into the bloodstream to flock or swarm together so they can repair organs or deliver drugs to a specific target. I gather the problem has been  getting the machines to work together and the proposed solution is to use UV light. More details here.

Finally, some latebreaking news from Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada). The university’s nano research facility, 4D Labs, has won funding (roughly $884, 000) from the federal government’s Western Economic Diversification agency to build a maskwritiing facility.  More about this tomorrow.