{"319511":{"#nid":"319511","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ChBE professor to lead DOE-funded nuclear energy research project","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESankar Nair, a faculty member in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering, and his research group received a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund a nuclear energy research and development project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENair\u2019s project, titled \u201cZeolite Membranes for Krypton\/Xenon Separation From Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Off-Gas,\u201d is one of 44 university-led projects to receive funding.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe aims to develop more efficient and robust methods to capture and purify Krypton and Xenon from the nuclear fuel cycle. Krypton-85 and Xenon-136 are released as off-gases when spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKr-85 is radioactive and must be stored as waste for many years. Separating it from the much larger amount of non-radioactive Xe-136 present in the off-gas would greatly reduce the volume of waste for storage, and purified Xe-136 is a commercially valuable gas used in applications such as lighting, anesthesia and medical imaging.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EConventional methods for separating these gases involve distillation at cryogenic temperatures, which is not considered economical. The two noble gases are chemically inert, making it difficult to find high-performance, radiation-resistant separation materials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENair\u2019s project will develop porous inorganic zeolite membranes for this purpose. It involves a close collaboration with Ramesh Bhave and Barry Spencer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, Tenn.); they will be involved in evaluating the radiation-resistance of the membranes under realistic conditions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EStory by Allison Caughey, Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Sankar Nair, a faculty member in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical \u0026 Biomolecular Engineering, and his research group received a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund a nuclear energy research and development project."}],"uid":"28045","created_gmt":"2014-08-27 15:42:24","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:59","author":"Amy Schneider","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-08-27T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-08-27T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1240","name":"School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAmy Schneider\u003Cbr \/\u003ESchool of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E(404) 385-2299\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:news@chbe.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Enews@chbe.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}