Recovery of uranium from seawater-status of technology and needed future research and development

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:6812632

Kelmers, A. D.

A survey of recent publications concerning uranium recovery from seawater shows that considerable experimental work in this area is currently under way in Japan, less in European countries. Repeated screening programs have identified hydrous titanium oxide as the most promising candidate adsorbent; however, many of its properties, such as distribution coefficient, selectivity, loading, and possibly stability, appear to fall far short of those required for a practical recovery system. In addition, various evaluations of the energy efficiency of pumped or tidal power schemes for contacting the sorbent and seawater are in serious disagreement. Needed future research and development tasks have been identified. A fundamental development program to achieve significantly improved adsorbent properties would be required to permit economical recovery of uranium from seawater. Unresolved engineering aspects of such recovery systems are also identified and discussed. 63 references.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 6812632
• Report Number(s): CONF-801229-1; TRN: 81-001668
• Resource Relation: Conference: Topical meeting: the recovery of uranium from sea water, Cambridge, MA, USA, 1 Dec 1980
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
SEAWATER
URANIUM
ADSORPTION
RECOVERY
ADSORBENTS
TITANIUM OXIDES
ACTINIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
METALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SORPTION
TITANIUM COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
WATER
050400* - Nuclear Fuels- Feed Processing
400105 - Separation Procedures