The Power Reactor & Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation has developed a technique is which uranium, thorium and other elements can be encapsulated in a nanoparticle in which cage-shaped carbon atom clusters are laminated like an onion. The nanoparticle is estimated to have a weight of 10,000.
The encapsulation of actinide elements, such as uranium and thorium, inside carbon molecule capsules is expected to enable the formation of new types of nuclear fuels of uniform properties, in the future. As the fullerene encaging uranium is assumed to possess superconductivity, application as a new functional material may be possible.
The corporation's R & D group generated an ...