Ohio State researchers Robert L. Snyder, Ken Sandhage and John Lannutti are trying to continue research on ways to utilize unused radioactive waste.The researchers at OSU have $250,000 from the State of Ohio Technology Action Fund to help them work on finding practical applications for the depleted uranium left behind from nuclear weapon production.Lannutti said they are investigating certain properties of the 235U that would make it useful in different industrial processes.”Depleted uranium is not something you’ll be driving around with or using in your home, at least not anytime soon,” Lannutti said. “Our goal is to establish new uses for what is considered a hazardous waste product.”Snyder said they are researching whether depleted uranium can replace the carbon anodes used in aluminum production. If that works, there is a potential of significantly lowering the cost of aluminum production, Snyder said. According to Lannutti, they are also researching if the uranium can be used as a catalyst in different industrial applications as well as ion conductors for fuel cells.The research is limited because of funding, but the researchers are trying to receive more funding to continue. Snyder said they need millions of dollars each year to continue the project and receive results in the near future.According to Snyder, if practical applications are not found for the radioactive waste, the waste could be buried – but that would cost as much as $11 billion and would sacrifice a potentially valuable resource.If the waste is disposed of, it will be buried in Yucca Mountain in Nevada. To this day, no nuclear waste has been buried in the mountain; however, according to Snyder, Yucca Mountain is a safe place to store the waste because it is geologically and chemically stable and the waste will not be able to contaminate the ground water. The question is: How does depleted uranium affect residents of Ohio? The answer is simple: Nearly 700,000 metric tons of depleted uranium are sitting in tanks at the Piketon U.S. Enrichment Corporation facility.”Seven hundred thousand metric tons of depleted uranium represents half of the uranium ever mined,” Snyder said.Lannutti said the depleted uranium is stored in tanks that resemble large propane tanks. The tanks are sitting row after row in a field exposed to the environment.Every year over $1 million is spent maintaining the tanks, Lannutti said. Depleted uranium has a low level of radioactivity and is not a tremendous threat to the environment. The depleted uranium at Piketon is not considered harmful as long as it remains outside the body, according to Lannutti. He said radiation from depleted uranium does not penetrate the skin.Even though the uranium has a low radioactivity, environmentalists don’t think that there should be more radioactivity in the atmosphere than nature put there, Snyder said. There are two types of uranium: 235U and 238U. 235U is lighter and is used to make nuclear fuel. 235U is the type of uranium used in nuclear weapons. 238U is heavier than the 235U that is considered a waste product. 235U is also referred to as depleted uranium. It is what is sitting in the tanks at the USEC facility in Piketon.Lannutti said after 40 to 50 years of building and fueling nuclear weapons, there is a lot of the 235U left over because it is considered wasteful and is not used in the nuclear weapons.The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon is scheduled to close in June 2001. As a result about 2,000 jobs will be lost and it will be an economic disaster, according to Snyder.”We believe that the depleted uranium could be useful, but the purpose of our research is to find practical applications for it,” Snyder said.Snyder thinks finding ways to utilize the depleted uranium could lead to a re-industrialization of the Piketon area and help create jobs.