Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Technologies to harvest uranium from sea

Uranium in trace quantities is present in soil, rock and water. Bounteous nature leaves about 4.5 billion tonnes of uranium in sea water, a thousand times more than what is known to exist in uranium mines. Since its concentration is extremely low (only one particle of uranium for 34 million particles of other elements), harvesting uranium from sea is a formidable task.

Japanese technology

Japan developed a technology by using plastic sheets to which amidoxime, which is capable of selectively absorbing uranium from seawater, is grafted by high energy electron beam irradiation.

Scientists from the Desalination Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre recovered uranium at milligram levels from sea water using electron beam grafted amidoxime.

Underwater farm

Tanada asserts that Japan’s nuclear power industry can harvest the 8,000 tons it needs annually from the Kuroshio Current that flows along Japan’s eastern seaboard.

Japanese researchers found out that they can harvest uranium from sea by cultivating genetically engineered gulfweed which will grow in sea at an unbelievable rate of two metres an year. The weed selectively soaks up heavy metals including uranium.

article source: http://www.hindu.com

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