Like some kind of modern - day alchemy , scientist have ascertain a manner to extract yellowcake atomic number 92 from seawater .
Yellowcake is the refined powered soma of uranium ore . After it ’s been enriched , it can beused to produce fuelfor nuclear power nuclear reactor . With further processing and enrichment , it can also be made into weapons - grade atomic number 92 too .
Until very late , you could only get your script on this stuff by minelaying U from the ground . Now , scientistshave announcedthe development of a method that can take out yellowcake out of saltwater using a low - toll modified yarn .
" This is a pregnant milestone , " Gary Gill , a investigator at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ( PNNL ) , said ina affirmation . “It indicates that this approach can eventually bring home the bacon commercially attractive atomic fuel derived from the oceans — the largest source of U on dry land . "
saltwater course contains about three parts per billion of uranium . The new developed acrylic roughage draw and adjudge on to dissolved uranium naturally found in the piddle . you may look out part of this process in the video player below .
“ We have chemically modified regular , inexpensive narration , to commute it into an adsorbent which is selective for U , efficient and reusable , " tot Chien Wai , president of the Supercritical Technologies at LCW , an Idaho - based clean energy party .
Gill proceed , " For each mental test , we put about two Sudanese pound of the fiber into the tank for about one month and pump the seawater through quickly , to mimic weather in the open ocean . LCW then extract the atomic number 92 from the adsorbent and , from these first three test , we got about five Gram — about what a nickel note weighs . It might not sound like much , but it can really add up . "
This Modern project has been no small exploit . It has been seven years in the works and cost roughly $ 25 million to complete . The US , Japan , and China have all been contend to control this exploit for several years , but it finally look like the US beat them to punch . The next step in the challenge is to scale - up their proficiency . The lab is presently applying for some further financing to test out this new uranium extraction out in the sphere in the Gulf of Mexico .
Unlike uranium mined from the ground , the amount of uranium in seawater is well-nigh inexhaustible . Forbeshas antecedently estimated it could fuel a thousand 1,000 - MW nuclear power plants for 100,000 long time . Equally , conventional atomic number 92 excavation is diffuse with a whole load of political , societal , and environmental controversies . For one , miner have been exhibit to suffer from higher rate of lung cancer . It can also contaminate groundwater and surface water with uranium by leaching process .
The next step is to test out this descent process in the ardent waters of the Gulf of Mexico , where due to the temperature , descent rates are expected to be three to five times high . This , the researcher hope , will show that obtaining U from saltwater is a viable , economical option .
