Next Big Future May 23, 2023
China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) will create a “world-leading” seawater uranium extraction technology development centre which is said to be the largest such test platform to be built in the South China Sea. The platform will form “two centres, one platform” seawater uranium extraction scientific research base together with a research and test centre and an international exchange centre. Construction has just got under way. It has the ability to carry out material verification and amplification experiments in real ocean conditions. The oceans are estimated to contain some 4 billion tons of the metal. The total uranium resources in land-based ores recoverable at costs of up to USD130 per kilogram stands at around 3.7 million tones, so the oceans could be an important resource of uranium if it can be recovered economically. Previously, Japan, USA and other countries have extracted a kilogram of Uranium from seawater, but the cost was three to ten times more than land mined Uranium… read more.