Present Status of Study on Extraction of Uranium from Sea Water

Abstract

The growth rate of the energy demand in the world has been lowered recently, however, the essenciality of the development of nuclear power generation has not been changed. Because of the limited resources of terrestrial uranium, the techniques of the extraction of uranium from sea water as the practically unlimited resources of uranium have been developed in Japan and other countries like F. R. Germany, Sweden, United States and others. Many fundamental results in the above field have been accumulated as well as some design studies and cost estimations have been conducted. In the last October, the International Meeting on Recovery of Uranium from Seawater was held in Japan organized by AESJ and IAEA. At this time moment, the up-to-date status of the studies including the selection of the chemical processes, development of adsorbents, design studies and cost estimations will be reviewed.

Solvation of the Ca2UO2(CO3)3 Complex in Seawater from Classical Molecular Dynamics

“…Functionalized polymers with the amidoxime-type ligand were used to sequester uranyl in the 1970s and 1980s . This effort continued into the 1990s, 2000s, and today. − Moreover, many fundamental studies have been carried out to understand the speciation of uranium in seawater and the competition from vanadium. − …”

Marinobacter sp. Stable Hydrous Titanium Oxide-Functionalized Bovine Serum Albumin Nanospheres for Uranium Capture from Spiked Seawater

“…With limited fossil resources and environmental constraints, nuclear power would increase dramatically over the next decades. , The sharp increases of nuclear power must put the limited uranium ore resources in desperate needs. Fortunately, it is estimated that there is 4.5 billion tons of uranium in marine water, which is approximately 1000× more than the available conventional sources such as terrestrial ores. − The uranium in marine water as a globally shared resource has been a hot topic since 1960 . However, it is hard to access uranium from seawater in a large scale, which is even considered as one of the seven chemical separations that would change the world due to the complex matrix of seawater, the trace concentration of uranium (∼3.3 ppb), and the highly stable existing form of uranium (Ca 2 [UO 2 (CO 3 ) 3 ]) in seawater.…”

Uranium Adsorption Tests of Amidoxime-Based Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene Fibers in Simulated Seawater and Natural Coastal Marine Seawater from Different Locations

“…Many approaches have been investigated in the past decades to exploit uranium from seawater, including flotation, ion exchange, and solvent extraction. − Adsorption has received considerable attention since the 1960s as a highly efficient method and the most promising approach for extracting uranium from seawater owing to its potential advantages such as moderate operating cost, cost efficiency, and low emissions. ,− Previous studies have been mainly devoted to improving adsorption performance in the laboratory with artificial seawater. Several research groups − have investigated the uranium adsorption behavior of a series of functionalized mesoporous carbon materials in both acidic water (pH 4) and artificial seawater (pH 8.2) and reported a maximum sorption capacity of 97 mg U/g-adsorbent in acidic water and 67 mg U/g-adsorbent in artificial seawater.…”