Chelating polymers for recovery of uranium from seawater

Despite the low concentration of uranium in seawater (3.3 ppb), a special emphasis has been placed on its recovery. Although the concentration is low, it has been estimated that the world's oceans contain about 4 x 109 tons of uranium - theoretically an unlimited supply of nuclear fuel. Adsorption has been considered to be a technically feasible procedure for a uranium recovery process with regard to economic and environmental impacts. The present paper restricts its coverage to those applications using chelating polymeric resins containing amidoxime groups as the most promising adsorbent. 72 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab