[ RadSafe ] Uranium in coals / lignites: Economics of uranium recovery

[Dan W McCarn]

Dan W. McCarn, Geologist; 3118 Pebble Lake Drive; Sugar Land, TX 77479; USA

HotGreenChile at gmail.com            <mailto:Dan.McCarn at shell.com>
UConcentrate at gmail.com

 

Hi Group:

 

As an addition to my previous notes on recovery of uranium from ash, the
following is an article about the potential for commercial recovery of
uranium from ash in China.

 

China: 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200612/ai_n17071184

http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2007/06/turning-coal-ash-into-energy.html

 

Based on the following Oak Ridge article, the cumulative "releases" are not
identified as aerosols or ash, but lumped altogether in a simplified mass
balance. 

 

http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html

 

The EIA states that 1,128,836,000 short tons coal were used in the USA in
2007.  Assuming 1.3 ppm average U concentration, this amounts to about 1600
metric Tonnes U. 

 

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/html/t25p01p1.html

 

 

Dan ii