Arab News Japan

TOKYO: The Japan Atomic Energy Agency has announced the development of what it says is the world’s first uranium-powered rechargeable battery.

The agency said: “These results are expected to provide a new resource value to ‘depleted uranium,’ which is generated in nuclear fuel production but remains unutilized.”

The agency noted that approximately 16,000 tons of depleted uranium (DU) are stored in Japan. 

Uranium has unique chemical properties and has long been recognized as a potential active material in chemical batteries.

The researchers successfully developed a rechargeable battery using uranium as the active material and were able to verify its charge and discharge performance. 

The uranium storage battery utilizes uranium as the negative electrode active material and iron as the positive one. The single-cell voltage of the prototype uranium rechargeable battery was 1.3 volts, which is close to that of a common alkaline battery (1.5 volts). 

The battery was charged and discharged 10 times, and the researchers found that the performance of the battery was almost unchanged, indicating relatively stable cycling characteristics.

“If uranium rechargeable batteries are increased in capacity and put to practical use, the large amount of DU stored in Japan will become a new resource for output controls in the electricity supply grid derived from renewable energy, thereby contributing to the realization of a decarbonized society,” the agency said.

On a larger scale, the agency is developing the uranium redox flow storage battery that will be able to produce 30,000 kilowatts per hour, enough to supply 3,000 homes with electricity per day.