A sponge to soak up radioactive waste

Flakes of graphene oxide have a "spongelike" quality that can be used to bind to and solidify radioactive waste.  Once in solid form, the contaminated material can be easily collected and cleaned up.

"Capturing radionuclides does not make them less radioactive, just easier to handle. Where you have huge pools of radioactive material, like at Fukushima, you add graphene oxide and get back a solid material from what were just ions in a solution," said chemist James Tour of Rice University. "Then you can skim it off and burn it. Graphene oxide burns very rapidly and leaves a cake of radioactive material you can then reuse."

The large surface area of graphene oxide particles means that they have an increased ability to adsorb and bond with other materials, specifically those with toxic quality which tend to have volatile chemical properties.  The honeycomb lattice of graphene can bond to and essentially stabilize them.     

source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130108112459.htm

Scientists at Rice University and Lomonosov Moscow State University have developed the new method for removing radioactive material. In the flask on the left, the solution contains the particles of graphene oxide (atom thick flakes);  on the right the particles have bonded to simulated radioactive material.

Practical applications range from cleanup of sites such as the Fukushima nuclear power plant to fracking -- or using graphene to filter out contaminants from the water.  "Hot" radioactive water normally needs to be shipped to various containment facilities around the country, which is done so at great expense.