China will extract a large amount of uranium from the sea. Researchers in that country have already developed a special method. A Chinese media report has claimed the same. As a result, experts say that Beijing has made great progress in increasing nuclear power.
According to Chinese media reports, some researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a special substance, called 'phoscage'. It is a sponge-like molecular structure. The phosphates in it chemically bind the uranium. As a result, it is possible to collect uranium in sea water. Chinese researchers claim that up to 50.4 milligrams of uranium per gram of material has been extracted from seawater samples in the laboratory, which is eight times higher than the American experimental level.
The presence of uranium in sea water is very low. So it is difficult to collect. Each ton of seawater contains about 3.3 mg of uranium. Besides, there are other elements like vanadium. As a result, uranium is difficult to separate. To solve this problem 'phoscage' was developed. Calculations say that the total reserves of uranium on earth are 79 lakh tons. However, the oceans contain approximately 450 million tons of uranium. A large part of it is deposited in the sea after being washed from rocks by rainwater and carried by river currents. The Mediterranean Sea alone contains approximately 1.2 million tonnes of uranium, enough to satisfy the world's current nuclear fuel needs for about 180 years.