The challenge of getting uranium from seawater

There's enough uranium in the world's oceans to power our current energy needs for hundreds of thousands of years. The challenge is finding a way to extract it at a cost that makes it a viable option. There have been various studies and trials carried out over the years - including in China and Japan - and in this episode we hear from Canon Bryan, founder and CEO of Supercritical Materials, about his US-based plan to secure uranium at scale, and at an economically viable cost, from the sea. Bryan, who was a co-founder of Uranium Energy Corp and spent more than a decade as Terrestrial Energy's chief commercial officer, says that the idea of sourcing uranium from seawater had been seen as a "mythical technology", one that, like fusion, was being worked on "but always a few years away". "In fact we've learned that's not true - with the serious engineering work we've been doing we've been able to dispel a lot of those myths," he says. If successful, it would solve supply issues - such as geopolitical ones - in the existing nuclear fuel supply chain, he says. Behind the initiative is Supercritical having exclusive rights to a licence from the US Department of Energy for a patented technological system to extract uranium from seawater. Their challenge is an engineering one: to scale-up the process to an industrial scale. They are currently in the preliminary economic assessment phase, with a target timeline, if all goes well, of 2033 for an industrial-scale facility, which, Bryan believes, could be producing uranium at the same, or lower, prices than found in today's market. Key links to find out more: World Nuclear News Supercritical Materials CNNC launches test platform to extract uranium from seawater Email newsletter: Sign up to the World Nuclear News daily or weekly news round-ups Contact info: [email protected] Episode credit:  Presenter Alex Hunt. Co-produced and mixed by Pixelkisser Production