Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Uranium extraction: Fuel from seawater

Nature Energy volume 2, Article number: 17022 (2017) Cite this article

Subjects

A Correction to this article was published on 06 March 2017

There are over four billion tonnes of uranium in the oceans that could be harvested for nuclear fuel, but current capture methods have limited performance and reusability. Now, an electrochemical method using modified carbon electrodes is shown to be promising for the extraction of uranium from seawater.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Alternating-current method for electrochemical extraction of uranium.

References

  1. Energy, Electricity and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period up to 2050 IAEA-RDS-1/36 (IAEA, 2016).

  2. Sholl, D. S. & Lively, R. P. Nature 532, 435–437 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kim, J. et al. Sep. Sci. Technol. 48, 367–387 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Tamada, M. Current Status of Technology for Collection of Uranium from Seawater. In Int. Seminars Nucl. War Planetary Emergen. (ed. Ragaini, R. ) 243–252 (World Scientific, 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kim, J. et al. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 53, 6076–6083 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Brown, S. et al. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 55, 4139–4148 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu, C. et al. Nat. Energy 2, 17007 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Das, S. et al. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 55, 4110–4117 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gill, G. A. et al. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 55, 4264–4277 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Yue, Y. F. et al. Sci. China Chem. 56, 1510–1515 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Pan, H.-B. et al. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 55, 4313–4320 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Park, J. et al. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 55, 4328–4338 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Alexandratos, S. D., Zhu, X., Florent, M. & Sellin, R. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 55, 4208–4216 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Endrizzi, F., Leggett, C. J. & Rao, L. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 55, 4249–4256 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Mehio, N. et al. Dalton Trans. 45, 9051–9064 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Flicker Byers, M. & Schneider, E. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 55, 4351–4361 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Costas Tsouris is in the Energy and Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6181, USA and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0512, USA.,

    Costas Tsouris

Authors
  1. Costas Tsouris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Costas Tsouris.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tsouris, C. Uranium extraction: Fuel from seawater. Nat Energy 2, 17022 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.22

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.22

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing