China Achieves Breakthrough in Seawater Uranium Extraction

Chinese team extracts uranium from seawater at 8 times the US target rate

Chinese researchers have found a way to extract uranium from seawater at several times the target rate set by the US Department of Energy, putting China at the forefront of a global quest to tap into a vast source of nuclear fuel. The team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao did this using a material they developed called PhosCage – a sponge-like molecular structure filled with phosphate groups that act as chemical traps. In a statement, the researchers said they had recovered up ...

By Ling Xin