Japan research team creates radioactive cesium adsorbents from pumice
December 5, 2021
There are moves to put the gathered pumice stones to use.
A research team from the Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology and other institutions announced that they had created from pumice stones zeolites, minerals used as adsorbents. Zeolites are used at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant to collect radioactive material. Zeolites have numerous holes of around 0.5 nanometers on the surface and adsorbs materials such as radioactive cesium.
The research team aims to put the zeolites into practical use for that and other purposes.
The Okinawa prefectural government has been scooping up pumice stones using heavy machinery and transporting them to a temporary disposal site, but how to finally dispose of them is becoming an issue.
The research team focused on the fact that pumice stones contain aluminum and other materials that are ingredients to creating zeolites. They added pumice stones arriving on the shores of Yoron Island in Kagoshima Prefecture to alkaline aqueous solutions and heated the solutions at around 100 C, forming zeolites on the surface of the stones.
"Science & Nature" POPULAR ARTICLE
-
Polish Families Pick through Debris after Floods Wash Away Homes
-
Ukraine’s Forests Devastated in Hellscape of War
-
Parkinson’s Patients to Receive Gut Bacteria Transplants, in Clinical 1st for Japan
-
CO2 Capture Technologies Advancing with Eye on Climate Change; New Technologies Include Absorption Coating Compound for Concrete
-
Osaka-Kansai Expo: Robot Avatars to be Operated by Online Visitors; Hopes to Show Barrier-free Future in Japan
JN ACCESS RANKING
- Streaming Services Boost Anime Popularity Overseas; Former ‘Geeky’ Interest More Beloved Among Gen Z than 3 Major U.S. Sports
- G20 Sees Soft Landing for Global Economy; Leaders Pledge to Resist Protectionism as Trump Calls for Imported Goods Flat Tariff
- 2024 POLLS: Ruling Camp Likely to Win Lower House Majority
- Chinese Rights Lawyer’s Wife Seeks Support in Japan; Sophie Luo Calls for Beijing to Free Ding Jiaxi, Xu Zhiyong
- Chinese Social Media Still Full of Anti-Japanese Posts 1 Month After Boy’s Fatal Stabbing; Malicious Videos Gain Large Number of Views