Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Ocean is possible source for Uranium

Researchers at the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory have significantly increased the extraction efficiency of Uranium from the ocean.  The cost is several times that of land based mining.  Because the actual material is a fraction of the cost to operate a nuclear reactor, the increased cost for recovering the material won't make a significant impact in the cost of electricity writes Lewis Page in The Register.

The research from the US Dept. of Energy Pacific National Laboratories is described here.  The lab is testing an absorbent that extracts trace elements of Uranium from Seawater. The results were reported during the American Chemical Society meeting Aug 19-23 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.





 
Japan has been considering engineered seaweed or absorbent material to extract uranium.  Lithium is another Ocean based metal that may be extracted.  It is estimated that it is a 14,000 trillion dollar resource. 

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