Although uranium concentration in seawater is only about 3 micrograms per liter, the quantity of uranium dissolved in the world’s oceans is estimated to amount to billion tonnes of uranium metal (tU). In contrast, the current conventional terrestrial resource is estimated to amount to about 17 million tU. | Extraction of uranium from seawater a few facts EPJ Nuclear Sci. Technol. 2 10 2016 Nuclear Sciences J. Guidez and S. Gabriel published by EDP Sciences 2016 amp Technologies DOI epjn e2016-50059-2 Available online at http REGULAR ARTICLE Extraction of uranium from seawater a few facts Joel Guidez and Sophie Gabriel French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission CEA DEN Université Paris Saclay 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette France Received 25 September 2015 Accepted 19 January 2016 Published online 4 March 2016 Abstract. Although uranium concentration in seawater is only about 3 micrograms per liter the quantity of uranium dissolved in the world s oceans is estimated to amount to billion tonnes of uranium metal tU . In contrast the current conventional terrestrial resource is estimated to amount to about 17 million tU. However for a number of reasons the extraction of significant amounts of uranium from seawater remains today more a dream than a reality. Firstly pumping the seawater to extract this uranium would need more energy than what could be produced with the recuperated uranium. Then if trying to use existing industrial flow rates as for example on a nuclear power plant it appears that the annual possible quantity remains very low. In fact huge quantities of water must be treated. To produce the annual world uranium consumption around 65 000 tU it would need at least to extract all uranium of 2 1013 tonnes of seawater the volume equivalent of the entire North Sea. In fact only the great ocean currents are providing without pumping these huge quantities and the idea is to try to extract even very partially this uranium. For example Japan which used before the Fukushima accident about 8 000 tU by year sees about million tU passing every year in the ocean current Kuro Shio in which it lies. A lot of research works have been published on the studies of adsorbents immersed in these currents. Then after submersion these adsorbents are
