22 February 2013/11 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/04 Esfand 1391

12 years ago an Egyptian scientist moved to Japan, to work with the National Institute for Material Science to create new water filters with nanotechnology.  Sherif El-Safty’s motivation was to help North African countries filter well water, which has a high rate of arsenic contamination.

After the 11 March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster his Japanese colleges discovered that not only was his nanofilter working on natural contaminants, but it was cleaning up radioactive iodine as well.  Safty had been ordered back to Egypt by the Egyptian government, but returned to Japan, along with his family, after getting the news about the filter.

Safty focused on refining the filter, after three months he came up with nanofilters for radioactive iodine, cesium and even strontium.

The nanofilter (made up of HOM dust) traps the radiation in its itsy bitsy pores (one millionth of a millimeter).  In a lab demonstration Safty showed how a magnet can be used to pull the nanofilters out of the water.

This is not the first time that Safty’s, and his co-researchers’, experiments with HOM mesoporous carriers resulted in success.  Last year they created optical sensors that could detect and remove tiny bits of cobalt and gold from urban ore (discarded cell phones, computers, etc).

The Japanese government has just approved the experimental use of the nano water filters at Fukushima Daiichi, as the GE designed disaster reactors are still pouring out contaminated water.