Article from 2017. Also not very informative IMHO about how this process actually works
How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
31–40 of 55 posts
Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#32Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> The biggest reserves are in Canada and Australia, not really countries we have to worry about cutting off supply anytime soon. Unless you are Iran. North Korea. Or anyone else currently not able to buy uranium from Canada.
Uranium is quite common, if you don't care too much about cost. If you own a house with a suburban lot, the top meter of soil in your yard probably contains several kilograms of uranium.
I think uranium at that concentration would qualify your lot as a Superfund site. It's a toxic heavy metal and that's a lot. Your numbers might be off by a zero or two.
Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#34Aluminum is 1000 times more abundant in seawater than (edit)uranium. Lithium is about 60 times as abundant. With uranium at $32/lb, aluminum at $0.75/lb and lithium at $6/lb it seems that aluminum and lithium would reach commercial viability first.
Magnesium has already made it with significant production coming from seawater.
Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#35Aluminum is 1000 times more abundant in seawater than (edit)uranium. Lithium is about 60 times as abundant. With uranium at $32/lb, aluminum at $0.75/lb and lithium at $6/lb it seems that aluminum and lithium would reach commercial viability first. Magnesium has already made it with significant production coming from seawater.
I don't think your first sentence says what you think it does...
Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd rather have a teleporter than a jetpack. Jetpacks are loud and smelly. I'd rather just beam somewhere instantaneously, and go on with my day.
Or your clone goes on with their day.
Those lacking in imagination should be sure to watch The Prestige in order to have it imagined on their behalf.
Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to Wikipedia( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_in_the_environment ): "According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation the normal concentration of uranium in soil is 300 μg/kg to 11.7 mg/kg." So let's say 5mg/kg. 200kg of soil per gram. How much area do you need to make 200kg of soil if you're going down 1m? I'd guess not much... So I think OP is wrong and it's mo…
I first thought that OP estimate was way off, but from your numbers he may be right! If you only need 200 tons of soil for 1kg of Ur, that's not much. A cubic meter of soil is ~2 tons, maybe more, which means you only need a 10m by 10m square to get 1kg of Ur if you go 1m deep. Wow.
I think getting to enriched uranium is the hard bit.
Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#38Anyone who comes with Thorium reactor, India will gladly supply their Thorium for your power requirement provided you give them working Thorium reactor.
Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uranium is quite common, if you don't care too much about cost. If you own a house with a suburban lot, the top meter of soil in your yard probably contains several kilograms of uranium.
>> the top meter of soil in your yard probably contains several kilograms of uranium. No. That is way way off. Grams ... more likely milligrams and even that sounds too much.
According to [1], "the normal concentration of uranium in soil is 300 μg/kg to 11.7 mg/kg." According to [2], the density of topsoil ranges from 1,100 to 2,500 kg/m^3. One acre is about 4,000 m^2, so a conservative estimate is that there is about 1.3 kg of uranium in 1 meter of top soil on a 1 acre lot. (4000 m^3 * 1100 kg/m^3 * 3x10^-7). That's just the low end - taking the midway point for both yields over 40kg (4000 m^3 * 1800 kg/m^3 * 6 mg/kg).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_in_the_environment
Re: How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)
#40> How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power “Concentrations are tiny, on the order of a single grain of salt dissolved in a liter of water” This sounds way to much, I can boil a litre of water in the kitchen and have a grain of Uranium? From Yahoo answers Grain of Salt - 2.25 mg (.00008 ounces). Uranium - 3 micrograms per liter (0.00000045 ounces per gallon) Yahoo answers didn't have how much energy 3 mi…
Going based on numbers from Wikipedia, U-235 is good for 83.14 TJ/kg, but that isotope only has a natural abundance of 0.72%. So 3 micrograms of uranium in the natural proportions would get you around 1800 J ignoring any contribution from other isotopes (ie. you're not using a breeder reactor). That means your uranium extraction method needs to be very energy efficient indeed.
Oh yeah, you pretty much have to use breeder reactors to use seawater uranium. That has been the plan all along, e.g. Cohen 83: http://large.stanford.edu/publications/coal/references/docs/...