Beijing. China has invented a new technology, through which it can obtain uranium from sea water to make nuclear weapons. Chinese researchers have achieved great success in this regard. With this new material developed by China, it will be able to extract uranium from the sea. The special thing is that in this matter China has left America behind. America was able to extract only 6 milligrams of this substance from one gram of sea water. At the same time, China has succeeded in extracting 50.4 milligrams of substance from one milligram of sea water. In this way, sea water has now become an important source for nuclear fuel.
what is this material
The name of the material that China has succeeded in extracting from sea water is Phoskaz. It is a sponge-like molecular structure, which contains phosphate. According to the report of South China Morning Post, these work like chemical traps. During this experiment, the researchers transformed phoscage into millimeter-sized beads. These are easy to use and retrieve in the open sea. These beads absorbed 22.55 milligrams of uranium per gram and continued to work even after being reused seven times.
What is its meaning?
This technology is very important for China. This will rapidly increase China's domestic uranium production. China will produce 1600 tons of uranium from domestic mines in the year 2024. However, according to the World Nuclear Association, China needs much more uranium, 13,000 tons. To bridge this huge gap, China was dependent on imports. In such a situation, China's work will become much easier due to supply of uranium from sea water.
How did uranium reach sea water?
It is noteworthy that there are 7.9 million tons of known sources of uranium on earth all over the world. At the same time, this figure in the sea can be 4.5 billion tonnes. This uranium is washed away from the rocks by sea water during rains and reaches it through rivers. This uranium is there in huge quantities, but extracting it from sea water is a big challenge. One ton of sea water contains only 3.3 milligrams of uranium. That is, to process uranium from sea water, a large amount of sea water will be required.
what are the challenges
It is not that there is only uranium in sea water. There are many other things mixed in it. In such a situation, separating uranium from sea water is a big challenge. Researchers in America worked hard for many years to overcome this challenge. Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed specialized fibers. With its help uranium was captured. At the same time, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used this technology on naturally flowing sea water. However, despite all these efforts, these people were able to extract only 6 milligrams of uranium from one gram of sea water.