On track to commercial extraction of uranium from seawater

Next Big Future  June 16, 2018
Seawater contains about three parts per billion of uranium. It’s estimated that there is at least four billion tons of uranium in seawater, which is about 500 times the amount of uranium known to exist in land-based ores which must be mined. A team of researchers in the US (PNNL, industry) has chemically modified regular, inexpensive acrylic fiber to convert it into an adsorbent which is selective for uranium, efficient and reusable. The material is inexpensive, adsorbent properties are reversible, and the captured uranium is easily released to be processed into yellowcake. Analysis of the technology suggests that it could be competitive with the cost of uranium produced through land-based mining. 2016 world uranium production report…read more.