Progress and Challenges of Materials and Methods for Uranium Extraction From Seawater

The ocean covers 70% of the earth’s area, and the seawater uranium is more than 1000 times that of terrestrial uranium ore. In order to increase the power generation and ensure the sustainable operation of nuclear power plants, the development of unconventional uranium resources is of great significance. As an effective means to solve shortage of terrestrial uranium resources, uranium extraction from seawater has received extensive attention in recent years. At present, many methods including membrane separation, chemical deposition, solvent extraction, ion exchange, reduction and adsorption have been applied to uranium extraction from seawater. This paper focuses on the recent research progress of adsorption method used inorganic materials, organic materials, carbon materials as adsorbent, and emerging electroreduction technologies, and further discusses the challenges and opportunities of these two methods.