The Extraction of Uranium From Salt Lakes in China

Uranium is the primary fuel source for nuclear power generation, making it an element of considerable technological importance. The energy produced by 1 kg of uranium is equivalent to that of 2500 t of coal. With increasing environmental concerns, priority will be given to nuclear energy over other energies because of its cleanliness and high efficiency. Uranium resources are finite and relatively few countries around the world have large resources. According to the 2016 'Red Book', it is reported that world uranium identified resources recoverable at a cost of <US $130/kgU were 5 718 400 tU as of 2015. In the highest cost category (<US $260/kgU), total identified resources amount to 7 641 600 tU. Economic uranium reserves will be exhausted within in near future, according to current levels of consumption and development. Uranium resources are broadly classified as either conventional or non-conventional. Non-conventional resources are very low-grade resources and those from which uranium is only recoverable as a minor byproduct. Uranium is therefore a secondary product and its recovery is, in most cases, not dependent on extraction costs. The exploitation of non-conventional resources is an inevitable choice for long term development. The high salt and low uranium aqueous systems such as seawater or salt lakes are amongst the most important non-conventional resources. The total amount of uranium in seawater is about 4.5 billion t. In this study, it is planned to extract uranium from seawater, taking the extraction of uranium from salt lakes as a starting point. Data obtained during studies on salt lakes will be used to develop extraction of uranium from sea water.