海水ウラン採取用のモール状捕集材の作製と評価

Synthesis and evaluation of long braid adsorbent for recovery of uranium from seawater

瀬古 典明; 玉田 正男; 笠井 昇; 吉井 文男; 清水 隆夫*

Seko, Noriaki; Tamada, Masao; Kasai, Noboru; Yoshii, Fumio; Shimizu, Takao*

海水中に溶存するウランを高効率的に捕集するための長尺のモール捕集材を放射線グラフト重合技術を用いて作製した。ポリエチレン繊維を原料としたモール状捕集材は、放射線照射,グラフト重合などの過程においていずれも強度保持条件を満たすことができた。グラフト率100%のグラフト繊維をモール状に加工した捕集材を用いた捕集試験では、これまでの捕集材と比較して、海水温度効果が1.5倍、海水との接触効率が1.7倍の計約2.5倍の捕集性能が得られた。これまで問題であった高重量の係留索に直接捕集材をモール状にしたものを用いることで、軽量化に成功し、捕集効率も海水との接触効率が上昇したことで、コスト低減化が見込まれる。

Development of the recovery technology of uranium of storing all over seawater can stable supply of mineral resources over the future. The amidoxime adsorbents used by nonwoven fiber of the shape of cloth produced by the radiation graft polymerization technique. It became clear that their adsorbents of the high form of contact efficiency with seawater are important. Therefore, the braid adsorbents by which contact efficiency with seawater is improved were devised. Moreover, by the mooring system using braid adsorbents, since it counted upon lightweight-ization, i.e., rationalization of the marine structure which occupies the great portion of total cost, in this research, while developing the producing method, performance evaluation was performed, and the production method and the applicability of a recovery system were examined.