After the disaster at Japan's Fukushima power plant, worldwide concerns over radioactive material and its environmental effects are on the rise.

Nuclear power plants use water as a coolant to handle the discharged radioactive material, but this means that this water becomes contaminated with radioactive material as well. To combat this concern, researchers from Australia's Queensland University of Technology have now developed technology that can remove radioactive material from contaminated water.

The new intelligent absorbent uses titanate nanofibers and nanotube technology which is able to lock in the radioactive materials from the water. The material can be safely disposed of without risk of the radioactive materials leaking. The new technology makes cleaning-up radioactive waste much more efficient. Using the intelligent absorbent will result in clean water and a more effective means for storing the radioactive material.

"One gram of the nanofibres can effectively purify at least one ton of polluted water," said Professor Huai-Yong Zhu who led the research team.

"This saves large amounts of dangerous water needing to be stored somewhere and also prevents the risk of contaminated products leaking into the soil."

The research team used contaminated radioactive water and then ran it through the fine nanotubes and fibers. The radioactive Cesium ions were trapped in the absorbent material.

The research team believes that the material can even help the medical field as well as being environmentally sound. By adding silver oxide nanocrystals to the outer surface, the nanostructures were able to capture radioactive iodine ions that can be used to treat thyroid cancer and can be found in probes and markers for medical diagnosis.

With the world relying on alternative means of energy like nuclear power, it is more imperative that safety measures need to be more stringent to avoid another nuclear disaster like the Fukushima plant in Japan.

"In France, 75 per cent of electricity is produced by nuclear power and in Belgium, which has a population of 10 million people there are six nuclear power stations," Professor Zhu said.

"Even if we decide that nuclear energy is not the way we want to go, we will still need to clean-up what's been produced so far and store it safely," he said.