The recovery of uranium has been carried out by adsorption method. In this method, the adsorbent needs the high selectivity and capacity for uranium adsorption in the seawater. It was found that hydrous titanium oxide was noble material for the recovery of uranium from seawater. Then, screening researches were carried out to evaluate the many kinds of uranium adsorbents and concluded that the amidoxime was a promising functional group for recovery of uranium from seawater. We have developed the high performance adsorbent having amidoxime with radiation-induced graft polymerization and the collection of 1 kg uranium from seawater was demonstrated. In the recovery system, the stacks of fabric adsorbent were changed to a braid type adsorbent to improve the contact between the adsorbent and the seawater. The sea area being considered for the recovery of uranium was preliminary investigated on the conditions of seawater temperature and depth of the sea.

R&D towards recovery of uranium from seawater in Japan

244th National Meeting (2012)

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