Cost Estimation of Uranium Recovery from Seawater with System of Braid Type Adsorbent

Long Term Sustainability of Nuclear Fuel Resources

“…It has been developed on a laboratory scale by using either resins or other specific adsorbent. An extraction cost as low as 250 USD/kg U has been estimated, which is more than twice as high as the present spot market price (Tamada et al, 2006). Although this price appears high, and certainly is, it could be acceptable for fast breeders with a closed fuel cycle.…”

Sequestering uranium from seawater: binding strength and modes of uranyl complexes with glutarimidedioxime

“…This thermodynamic analysis confirms the observation in the marine experiments in Japan that the U(VI) extraction efficiency was higher from warmer seawaters. 5,6 The marine experiments in 55 Japan showed a 1.5 times increase in the efficiency when the seawater temperature increased by 10 o C. 5,6 In fact, using the van't Hoff equation and the enthalpy of reaction (2) (+16.7 kJ/mol), it is estimated that the equilibrium constant of reaction (2) at 20 o C would be 1.3 times that at 10 o C, in excellent agreement with the 60 observations in the marine experiments.…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6] Among these, 30 the Japanese process using amidoxime-based sorbents prepared by radiation grafting showed the best promise. 5,6 A sorption efficiency of 1.5 g-U/kg sorbent was achieved in 30-day marine tests and the estimated cost was $500/kg uranium, about 2-3 times the spot market price of uranium. 1 These results could 35 justify the further development of industrial scale marine systems to extract uranium from seawater at a price competitive with those from conventional uranium resources.…”

Sustainable, Full-Scope Nuclear Fission Energy at Planetary Scale

“…To be sure, commercial-scale extraction of uranium from seawater has not been demonstrated-by these or any other means-because doing so isn't currently cost-competitive with mining-and-processing of uranium ores. Costs of such seawater extraction have been estimated at roughly $1000/kg of uranium-produced when employing current technology, and $300/kg is deemed foreseeable with improvements in adsorbent technology [15]. (A half-decade ago, the 'spot' price of uranium in global commerce surged to ~$300/kg, though it is a few-fold less than this at present.…”

“…Such flow rates of seawater are readily available from natural currents; for example, the Florida Current carries about 30 Sv through the Straits of Florida, so only a small fraction-~1%-of even this modest current would need to have its dissolved uranium harvested to satisfy all of the energy needs of an energy-replete, fully-populated human civilization. Using the early adsorbent technology that's already demonstrated to be able to harvest 2 g of uranium per kg of adsorbent [15], and assuming a total collection cycle-time of two months, the amount of adsorbent material needed to be deployed at any given time would be roughly 3,400,000 MT.…”