Recovery system for uranium from seawater with fibrous adsorbent and its preliminary cost estimation

Sugo, Takanobu; Tamada, Masao; Seguchi, Tadao; Shimizu, Takao*; Uotani, Masaki*; Kashima, Ryoichi*

The cost of uranium recovered from seawater was estimated by using the amidoxime adsorbent of polymer fibers synthesized by radiation modification, and the technical problems in the recovery system were extracted. The cost of adsorbent materials, storage in seawater for uranium absorption, and the uranium detachment from the adsorbent was estimated respectively in three different systems of the storage in seawater as a buoy, floating body, and chain binding system. The recovery cost of uranium from seawater was estimated to be 810 times of that from mine uranium. More than 80% of the total cost was occupied by the cost for storage in seawater, which is owing to a weight of metal cage for the holding of adsorbents. The cost can be attained to half by the reduction of the weight to 1/4. One of facing research subject is the improvement of adsorbent ability, since the cost directly depends on the adsorbent performance.