UNLV and international uranium enrichment company Urenco entered into a sponsored research agreement in early June to advance university-developed technology for the safe conversion and recovery of strategically important materials that are byproducts of the fuel enrichment process.

UNLV Interim Vice President for Research David Hatchett and his team created a method to stabilize and recover uranium materials from depleted uranium hexafluoride, a byproduct of the nuclear fuel enrichment process. This work was recently awarded a U.S. patent entitled, "Conversion of uranium hexafluoride and recovery of uranium from ionic liquids.”

The research will advance how depleted uranium hexafluoride, better known as UF6, can be converted into more stable forms of uranium, while also recovering materials for reuse on a large scale, a sustainable advancement that could address current global stockpile issues, Hatchett said. 

“We are excited to partner with Urenco Group and its U.S. arm Urenco USA (UUSA) and move forward on what has thus far been a bench-top process,” he said. “Over the next year we will work with industry to develop these processes to be responsive to the need to reduce the stockpile of UF6 and for the recovery and reuse of strategic materials.”

Hatchett, who also serves as a professor of chemistry and radiochemistry, says beneficial materials recovered in the process are important for a variety of nuclear energy applications. The patent for the technology includes contributions from Ken Czerwinski, a professor of radiochemistry, as well as past graduate students Katherine Luebke and Cassara Higgins, who are now staff scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

“This is the type of collaboration that is core to the Office of Economic Development’s functions, the virtuous cycle of research, innovation, and commercial deployment of technologies to increase the wellbeing of citizens and driving economic development and diversification efforts,” says UNLV Senior Associate Vice President of Economic Development Zach Miles. “Collaborations between industry and academia are critical to advancing new ideas to commercially viable products, providing real-world opportunities for students, and capitalizing on the significant investments made to discover such ideas”.

Urenco is an international supplier of enrichment services and products for the civilian nuclear industry. UUSA is the only operating commercial uranium enrichment plant in North America.