How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)(engineering.stanford.edu) |
How to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear power (2017)(engineering.stanford.edu) |
The biggest reserves are in Canada and Australia, not really countries we have to worry about cutting off supply anytime soon. We have bigger strategic mineral concerns (REMs and China)
Cool tech, won't leave the lab. Just like the billion "metal-ion/air/water" batteries that get shilled non-stop.
Unless you are Iran. North Korea. Or anyone else currently not able to buy uranium from Canada.
Perhaps not maliciously, but might those countries hypothetically shut down those mines for environmental reasons?
Nuclear Power Worldwide: Development Plans in Newcomer Countries Negligible
* An analysis of current decommissioning and new construction projects reveals a downward trend in nuclear power worldwide
* Only four newcomer countries are currently constructing nuclear power plants and all are plagued by financial difficulties and delays
* An econometric analysis suggests that countries classified as potential newcomers tend to be less democratic
* On the supply side, the dominant driving force is the geopolitical interests of countries that export nuclear power
* Within the relevant international organizations, Germany should work to ensure that no support is given to the construction of nuclear power plants in newcomer countries
https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.74261...
Magnesium has already made it with significant production coming from seawater.
That's a lot more uranium than I would have guessed. According to the top few google results, it's about 3 milligrams per cubic meter.
Problems like these make me think of jetpacks or flying cars. It turns out that the future isn't what we thought it would be from the sci-fi ideas of the mid 20th century. It's a lot cooler in some ways, and far far more boring in others. (I want my jetpack)
“Concentrations are tiny, on the order of a single grain of salt dissolved in a liter of water”
This sounds way to much, I can boil a litre of water in the kitchen and have a grain of Uranium?
From Yahoo answers
Grain of Salt - 2.25 mg (.00008 ounces).
Uranium - 3 micrograms per liter (0.00000045 ounces per gallon)
Yahoo answers didn't have how much energy 3 micrograms of Uranium can create.
I'd guess if we could get a way to extract it with an algae or something, the energy(sunlight) it uses would be better off stored and burned.
No. That is way way off. Grams ... more likely milligrams and even that sounds too much.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_in_the_environment
on a 1 acre lot
"According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation the normal concentration of uranium in soil is 300 μg/kg to 11.7 mg/kg."
So let's say 5mg/kg. 200kg of soil per gram. How much area do you need to make 200kg of soil if you're going down 1m? I'd guess not much...
So I think OP is wrong and it's more like 'several grams'.
Looking at average suburban lot sizes, they seem to be about 7200 sqft , which is about 668m^2.
Which gives 668m^3 which gives about 4kg of uranium shockingly.
[1] https://www.reference.com/science/much-cubic-meter-soil-weig...
A cubic meter of soil is ~2 tons, maybe more, which means you only need a 10m by 10m square to get 1kg of Ur if you go 1m deep. Wow.
Google says soil concentration of Uranium is like 3ppm. But, if you do the math, 668 x 1200 x 1000 x (1/1000000) = 802g for every ppm. 3ppm Uranium would be 2.4kg by this number.
Lead is at like 15-40ppm (https://ag.umass.edu/soil-plant-nutrient-testing-laboratory/... ), so between 12 and 32 kg of lead in everyone's back yard?
Fun fact: if the uranium and thorium in an average crustal rock were totally fissioned (using breeder reactors), the rock would produce about 20x the heat energy of burning the same mass of coal.
10^9 == many of us. Unless your definition of "us" is hacker news readers.