RE: uranium in seawater

["Jim Otton" <jkotton@usgs.gov>]

Marco,

The uranium content of seawater is about 3 ppb.  During the energy crisis of

the 70s, seawater was briefly looked at as a possible source, but not

seriously pursued.  Uranium is not recovered from any low-grade source

presently, although several years ago it was recovered from phosphate ores

(100-200 ppm U) in Florida as a byproduct of phosphate rock processing and

farther back it was recovered during processing of copper ores.  The few

uranium mines operating in the U.S. presently recover uranium from shallow

low-grade sandstone deposits by in-situ leaching.  Most U.S. uranium is

imported from high-grade deposits in Canada and Australia.  Processing of

HEU from the former USSR also provides a lot of fuel-grade uranium.



Jim Otton

U.S. Geological Survey





-----Original Message-----

From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]On Behalf Of Marco Caceci

Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 9:34 AM

To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: uranium in seawater





We all know that seawater has a lot (ppm range right?) of uranium in it.

The question is: where does uranium go once you make salt out of seawater?

My understanding is that

- water is taken out

- salt (NaCl) is taken out

- sometimes MgCl2 etc. are also precipitated out.

Had a chat on this a while ago, it seems that we have here a potential

source for U3O8 (I am told it is around $60/lb now), and a potential TENORM

hazard, for the delight of ecologists and terrorists alike.

Maybe somebody has a quick answer: how much uranium is left and where does

it eventually go? does anybody actually recover it?



Marco



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