Scientists have learned to extract uranium from sea water

How much uranium is in the ocean? According to a press release from the US Department of Energy, the oceans contain more than 4 billion tons of uranium, which is “enough to meet the world's energy needs for the next 10,000 years, if only it could be possible to capture the element from seawater and use it as fuel for nuclear power. power plants ".

While this means that there is a huge potential for nuclear fuel, a quick test by the World Nuclear Association shows that the concentration of uranium in seawater is significantly lower than in mines on earth. The real issue is the economics of extracting uranium at these concentrations.

For example, uranium exists in the Earth's continental crust at a concentration of 2.8 ppm and in seawater at 0.003 ppm. Higher grade uranium ores, such as those in the Patterson Lake area of ​​Saskatchewan, have a concentration of 200,000 ppm. The World Nuclear Association estimates that there is a total of 5.9 million tons of uranium available, excluding seawater. The four largest producers, in descending order, are Australia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Canada.

In 2011, the US Department of Energy assembled a team of national laboratories, universities, and research institutes to tackle the challenges of extracting uranium from seawater, including from nuclear power plant accidents. The team recently developed new adsorbents that cut the cost of extracting uranium from seawater by three to four times.

This collaboration culminated in the creation of polyethylene fibers containing a chemical particle called amidoxime that attracts uranium. So far, testing has been done in a laboratory in real seawater. For several weeks, the submerged fibers collect uranium oxide, and then they are taken out of the water and subjected to acid treatment, releasing uranyl ions and regenerating the adsorbent for reuse. Further processing and enrichment of uranium creates material for the fuel of nuclear power plants.