Aquaculture of Uranium in Seawater by a Fabric-Adsorbent Submerged System
- Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (Japan)
- Chiba University (Japan)
The total amount of uranium dissolved in seawater at a uniform concentration of 3 mg U/m{sup 3} in the world's oceans is 4.5 billion tons. An adsorption method using polymeric adsorbents capable of specifically recovering uranium from seawater is reported to be economically feasible. A uranium-specific nonwoven fabric was used as the adsorbent packed in an adsorption cage 16 m{sup 2} in cross-sectional area and 16 cm in height. We submerged three adsorption cages in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 20 m at 7 km offshore of Japan. The three adsorption cages consisted of stacks of 52 000 sheets of the uranium-specific non-woven fabric with a total mass of 350 kg. The total amount of uranium recovered by the nonwoven fabric was >1 kg in terms of yellow cake during a total submersion time of 240 days in the ocean.
- OSTI ID:
- 20837812
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Technology, Vol. 144, Issue 2; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2006 American Nuclear Society (ANS), United States, All rights reserved. http://epubs.ans.org/; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0029-5450
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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